t* 



DETECTION OF FRAUD 



AND 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 



> \ 



V. 1\ 




F FRAUraiD PR0TEC1 



DETECTION OF FRAUTmid PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 

A TREATISE 

ox THE 

ADULTERATION OF FOOD AND DRINK: 

■WITH 
PLAIN AND SIMPLE DIRECTIONS FOR DETECTING TIIEM ; 

AXD OF 

THE DELETERIOUS INFLUENCE OF LEAD ON THE HUMAN 

SYSTEM, MEANS OF PREVENTING ITS INFLUENCE, 

TREATMENT OF LEAD AFFECTIONS, AND OF 

THE PROCESS FOR DETECTING LEAD 

WHERE PRESENT. 

WITH 

AN APPENDIX, 

GIVIXG NEARLY 

ONE HUNDRED RECIPES 

FOR MAKING 

TOOTH POWDERS AND TF ASHES, HAIR OILS, HAIR DYES, POMADES, 

SKIN POWDERS, PERFUMES, SOAPS, CONFECTIONS, 

ESSENCES, SYRUPS, TINCTURES, ETC. 

BY 

M. L. BYRN, M. D. 

GRADUATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
LIPPINCOTT,' GRAMBO, AND CO. 

1852. 



> 




Entered according to Act of Congress, in tlie year 1852, by 

LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO, AND CO., 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Com-t of the United States. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
T. K. AND P. G. COLLINS, PRINTERS. 



TO 

WILLIAM B. BYRN, ESQ., 

OF RUTHERFORD COUNTY, TENNESSEE, 

THIS LITTLE VOLUME 

IS IXSCEIBED, IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE 

OF EARLY KINDNESS, BY HIS STEADFAST FRIEND AND 

AFFECTIONATE BROTHER, 

THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 



Is the question asl^ed: "Why have the following 
pages been written, what will be accomplished, who 
will be benefited ?" If so, I answer, I have writ- 
ten them from a sense of duty : one that I owe to 
myself, to my God, and to the world. Suffering 
humanity calls aloud for relief; the father who, 
by poisonous articles of diet, vended by those in 
whom he had confidence, has seen his child, the 
idol of his heart, consigned to a premature grave, 
calls for the work. The unsuspecting public, Avho 
are daily taking a slow poison^ and from which 
cause they are often thrown upon a bed of lan- 
guishing and affliction ; who are scorched with 
fever, and racked with pain, need such a work. 
If the public wall only for one moment consider 
what the adulteration of food and drink has done, 
they will at once admit that such a book is needed. 
This sophistication of food and drink has ''slain its 
thousands, and tens of thousands." It has taken 



vlii PREFACE. 

from us tlie brightest ornaments of society. It 
has torn the dear parent from dutiful and affec- 
tionate children ! It has taken from the mother 
the brightest hope of her declining years, and 
made her life a misery. But it is unnecessary to 
say more in a preface, as I trust that, in the peru- 
sal of the work, every one will see and know for 
themselves, that " in the midst of life we are in 
death.,'' and I sincerely hope that some means will 
be taken to put a stop to this trifling with human 
life and human happiness, and that ere long we 
shall see the place of foisons supplied by nature's 
o^vn healthful productions ; that we may see the 
establishments, and the owners thereof, that manu- 
facture those articles so deleterious to health, sink 
into merited oblivion, never again to rise. If this 
little work should be the means of awakening the 
public mind to a sense of duty, that shall result in 
some good for the present and future generations, 
I shall feel happy in thinking that my labor has 
been appreciated, and that in future years, when I 
have left this scene of action, my name will still 
live, in remembrance of this philanthropic and bold 

undertaking. 

M. L. BYRN, M. D. 

New York, June, 1852. 



CONTENTS. 



CLASSIFICATION. 



Class I.- 



Articles or Food. 


1. 


Arrowroot 


2. 


Bread 


3. 


Cheese 


4. 


Cream 


5. 


Coffee 


6. 


Chocolate . 


7. 


Common Salt 


8. 


Flour 


9. 


Ilog's Lard 


10. 


Honey 


11. 


Meats 


12. 


Milk . 


13. 


Pickles 


14. 


Sago . 


15. 


Tea . 


16. 


Tapioca 



PAGE 

13 
14 

19 
21 

22 
24 
25 
25 
26 
27 
28 
28 
51 
53 
53 
57 



Class II.— Spirituous and Malt Liquors, &c. 

1. Beer .... 

2. Brandy .... 

3. Gin 



58 
64 
65 



X 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 




4. Porter 


66 




5. Rum 


63 




6. Wines 


66 




7. AVhiskey 


71 


Class III. 


— Confectionery, Spices, &c. 






1. Preserves 


72 




2. Pepper (black) . . . . 


74 




3. Pepper (white) . . . . 


74 




4. Candies 


75 




5. Mustard 


77 




6. Nutmegs . . . . 


78 




7. Ice-Cream .... 


78 




8. Sweet Oil ... . 


. 80 


Cl^ssIV. 


—Miscellaneous Articles. 






1. Alum 


82 




2. Cider 


82 




3. Gunpowder .... 


. ^4 




4. Indigo 


84 




5. Sealing-wax .... 


85 




0. Soaps 


86 




7. Starch 


. 87 




8. Soda-water (spurious soda-water ir 






bottles) .... 


87 




9. Vinegar .... 


. 89 




10. Water .... 


91 




11. Beeswax .... 


94 



Class V. — Lead : its Influence on the Human Sys- 
tem. — Means of preventing its delete- 
rious effects. — Treatment of lead 
affections, and process for detecting 

LEAD where present .... 96 



CONTENTS. 



XI 





PAGE 


Conclusion ...... 


. 132 


Appendix 


. 139 


Tooth Powders and Washes 


. 140 


Remedies for Toothache .... 


. 144 


Hair Oils, Washes, Perfumes, &c. 


. 145 


Pomades 


. 148 


Hair Djes 


. 149 


Preparations for the Skin 


. 150 


Perfumes for Scent Boxes, &c. 


. 154 


Perfumes for the Handkerchief, &c. 


. 155 


Soaps 


. IGl 


Confections ...... 


. 1G2 


Miscellaneous Articles 


. 1G3 



CLASS I. 

ARTICLES OF FOOD. 

1. Arrowroot. — 2. Bread. — 3. Cheese. — 4. Cream. — 5. 
Coffee. — 6. Chocolate. — 7. Common Salt. — 8. Flour. — 9. 
Hogs' Lard. — 10. Honey. — IL Meats. — 12. Milk. — 

13. Pickles.- 14. Sago.— 15. Tea.— 15. Tapioca. 

1. Arrowroot. 

This very useful article is obtained from a plant 
growing in the West Indies. If pure, it is in the 
form of a light white powder, or small pulverulent 
masses; when pressed between the fingers it has 
a firm feel, and is entirely destitute of taste or 
smell. A fraudulent imitation of arrowroot is 
made from potato-starch. This can be detected 
in two or three ways ; but as this work is intended 
for the non-professional, none but the simplest 
tests wuU be given, such as can be performed by 
almost every person. 

Tests. — Take some of the arrowroot, put into 
a mortar or common bowl, add a little nitric acid 
(aqua-fortis), diluted with twice its bulk of water. 
Rub up well for five minutes with a pestle, or a 
piece of round, smooth wood; and if there is any 
potato-starch present, immediately a transparent 
thick paste or jelly will be formed. If the arrow- 
root is pure, the appearance will be opaque or 
2 



14 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

cloudy, and v*ill take mucli longer to become viscid 
and thick. The arrowroot also is destitute of the 
fetid, unpleasant smell, that we have when working 
with the potato-starch. A corresponding test of 
the purity of this article is its white color, and the 
entire absence of smell or taste. Arroivroot dif~ 
feriyig from the description here given should 
always he rejected, 

2. Bread, 

Bread, made of whej^ten flour, is one of the ar- 
ticles of food in which a fraud very deleterious to 
health is practised, that the baker may produce a 
beautiful white bread out of an inferior article of 
flour. Knowing that the goodness of bread is es- 
timated by its whiteness, it is the rule of the baker 
to add a certain quantity of alum to the dough ; 
this improves the appearance of the bread very 
much, and renders it whiter and firmer. Good 
white and porous bread may certainly be made 
from goad wheaten flour alone ; but to produce the 
degree of whiteness rendered indispensable by the 
caprice of the consumers, it is necessary (unless 
the very best of flour is used) that the dough 
should be hleaehed; and no substance has hitherto 
been found to ansv^er this purpose better than alum. 
"Without this salt, it is impossible to make bread 
from the kind of flour usually employed by bakers^ 
so white as that which is generally sold in all cities. 
If the alum be omitted, the bread has a slight yel- 
lowish gray hue — as may be seen in the instance of 
what is called home-made bread, of private fami- 
lies» Such bread remains lonfjjer moist than bread 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 15 

made with alum; yet it is not so light, and is full of 
ejes, or porous, and it has also a different taste. 

The quantity of alum requisite to produce the de- 
sired whiteness and porosity, depends entirely upon 
the genuineness of the flour, and the quality of 
grain from which the flour is obtained. Thus we 
can see that the meaner the flour the more alum 
we have to eat. The meal-man makes different 
sorts of flour from the same grain. The best flour 
is mostly used by the biscuit-bakers and pastry- 
cooks, and the inferior sorts in making bread. The 
bakers' flour is very often made of the worst kinds 
of damaged wheat, and other grains mixed with 
them in grinding the wheat into flour; such as 
common beans and peas. 

I have been assured by several bakers on whose 
testimony I could rely, that the small profit attach- 
ed to the bakers' trade, and the bad quality of the 
flour, induces the most of bakers to use alum in 
the making of their bread. The smallest quantity 
of alum that can be employed with the effect to 
produce a white, light, and porous bread, froma n 
inferior kind of flour, I have been told, is from 
three to four ounces to a barrel of flour. The 
alum is either mixed well in the form of powder, 
with a quantity of flour previously made into a 
liquid paste with water, and then incorporated with 
the dough ; or the alum is dissolved in the water 
employed for mixing up the whole quantity of the 
flour for making the dough. 

Let us suppose that the baker intends to convert 
one barrel of flour into loaves with the least adul- 
teration practised. He pours the flour into the 
kneading-trough, and sifts it through a fine wire 



16 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

sieve, wliicli makes it lie very light, and serves to 
separate any impurities with which the flour may 
be mixed. Two ounces of alum are then dissolved 
in about a quart of boiling water, and the solution 
poured into the seasoning-tub. Four or five pounds 
of salt are likewise put into the tub, and a quan- 
tity of hot water. When the mixture has cooled 
down to the temperature of about 80°, three or four 
pints of yeast are added ; the whole is mixed, 
strained through the seasoning-sieve, emptied into 
a hole in the flour, and mixed up with the re- 
quisite portion of it to make it of the consist- 
ence of a thick batter. Some dry flour is then 
sprinkled over the top, and it is covered up with 
cloths. 

In this situation it is left about three hours. It 
gradually swells, and breaks through the dry flour 
scattered on its surface. An additional quantity 
of warm water, in which one ounce of alum is dis- 
solved, is now added, and the dough is made up 
into a paste as before; the whole is then covered 
up. In this situation it is left for a few hours. 

It is then intimately kneaded with more water 
for upwards of an hour. The dough is cut into 
pieces with a knife, and penned to one side of the 
trough ; some dry flour is sprinkled over it, and it 
is left in this state for about four hours. It is then 
kneaded again for half an hour. The dough is 
now cut into pieces and weighed, in order to fur- 
nish the requisite quantity to each loaf. The 
loaves are left in the. oven about two hours and a 
half. When taken out they are carefully covered 
up, to prevent as much as possible the loss of 
weight. The theory of the bleaching property of 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 17 

alum, as manifested in the purification of an infe- 
rior kind of flour, is by no means well understood; 
and, indeed, it is really surprising that the effect 
should be produced by so small a quantity of that 
substance, three or four ounces of alum being suf- 
ficient for a barrel of flour. 

Another substance employed by fraudulent 
bakers, is subcarbonate of ammonia. With this 
salt, they realize the important consideration of 
producing light and porous bread from spoiled, or 
what is called sour flour. The ammonia which be- 
comes converted into a gaseous state, during the 
operation of baking, causes the dough to swell up 
into air-bubbles, which carry before them the stiff 
dough, and thus it renders it porous; the salt it- 
self is, at the same time, totally volatilized during 
the operation of baking. 

Potatoes are likewise largely used by unprinci- 
pled bakers, as a cheap ingredient to enhance their 
profit. The potatoes being boiled, are mashed, 
passed through a sieve, and incorporated with the 
dough by kneading. 

Such are the artifices practised in the prepara- 
tion of bread,* and it must be allowed that they 
are bad enough, as the alum will produce a bad 
effect, more especially with children that eat at 
times a quantity of bread ; but there is one that 
is still more reprehensible, I mean the mixing 
of sulphate of copper (common blue-stone) with 
the dough before baking. It is used to hide any 

* There are instances of convictions on record, of bakers 
having used gypsum, chalk, and pipe-clay, in the manu- 
facture of bread. 



18 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

bad quality of the flour; and, by the admixture of 
a little carbonate of magnesia, at the same time, it 
accomplishes the end. Thus we are deceived, and 
swallow down articles of diet that are entirely un- 
fit for assimilation in the stomach of a brute, much 
less a human being. And how often is it the case 
that we see persons in the bloom of health take 
their supper, consisting, perhaps, of little else than 
tea and bread, and in a few minutes they are 
writhing in agony and pain ? What is the cause? 
They have been eating an article of bread that 
contains the blue-stone just spoken of, and they 
often spend a day and night, and sometimes lon- 
ger, in this condition, not knowing that such things 
are put in bread. Many instances could be given 
where the remaining loaf has been found to con- 
tain the copper in such quantity that it was seen 
m the form of small crystals in the bread. 

Test for Alum.~Vom upon two ounces of the 
suspected bread, half a pint of boiling distilled 
water, or pure rain water; boil the mixture for ten 
minutes, and strain it through unsized paper. Boil 
down the fluid to about one-fourth of its original 
bulk,^ and let gradually fall into the clear fluid a 
solution of muriate of barytes. If a copious white 
precipitate settles to the bottom of the vessel, 
which does not disappear by the addition of pure 
mtric acid {aqua-fortis), the presence of alum 
must be suspected. Bread, made without alum, 
produces, when treated in this manner, a very 
slight -pre ciphate, which originates from a minute 
quantity of sulphate of magiiesia, contained in all 
common salt of commerce; and bread made with- 
out the salt, produces an infusion with water. 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 19 

whicli does not become disturbed by the process 
just mentioned. More minute processes could be 
given, but they would not be of much service to 
those unacquainted with chemistry. If more is 
needed, make the same experiment on home-made 
bread, known to be pure, and compare the two 
results. 

Test for Sulphate of Copper, or Blue-Stone. — 
This can be detected by acting on the poisoned 
bread with distilled or rain water, and testing the 
water with a solution of ferro-cyanide of potas- 
sium, when the reddish-brown precipitate, charac- 
teristic of the presence of copper will appear, even 
if the quantity is very small. Or, a still easier pro- 
cess is, to throw a few drops of the ferro-cyanide of 
potassium on a fresh-cut loaf of the bread, when a 
rose color will be observed at the end of a few 
minutes, if there is any of the blue-stone present. 

The muriate of barytes and ferro-cyanide of 
potassium can be found at any drug store. It is 
necessary to keep them where children or others 
cannot take them through mistake for something 
else. 

3. Cheese. 

This is contaminated with red lead, and pro- 
duces very serious consequences, when taken into 
the stomach. I remember a case in which the evil 
hadbeen caused by the sophistication of theannotto, 
employed for coloring the cheese. This substance 
(the annotto) was found to contain red lead, a me- 
thod of cheating which has lately been confirmed, 
as will be shown by the following case. A gentle- 



20 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

man who had occasion to reside for some time in 
the city, was one night seized with a distressing, 
an indescribable pain in the region of the abdo- 
men and stomach, accompanied with a feeling of 
tension which occasioned much restlessness, anxiety, 
and great aversion to food. He began to fear that 
inflammation of some internal organ had sat in ; 
but in twenty-four hours the symptoms entirely 
disappeared. Four days after this he experienced 
a similar attack ; and he then recollected that, 
having on both occasions arrived from the coun- 
try late in the afternoon, he had ordered a plate of 
rich cheese toasted, of which he had partaken 
heartily; a dish of wdiich he was very fond and 
often ate of. Everything was so plain that he at- 
tributed his suffering to the cheese. The circum- 
stance was mentioned to the lady of the house, 
who expressed great surprise, as the cheese looked 
very fine and r^VA, and persuaded him it was not 
the cheese, and to try it again. He did so, and 
had another attack ; this was considered proof 
sufficient, and the cheese w^as tested and found to 
contain lead. 

Test. — Take a small piece of the suspected 
cheese, and put it into one ounce of water, and pass 
through it a stream of sulphuretted hydrogen gas, 
previously adding a small quantity, say five drops, 
of muriatic acid, when you will at once see the 
fluid turn of a brown or black color, if the small- 
est quantity of lead is present. 

Rule for making Sulphuretted Hydrogen Gas. — 
Take of sulphuret of antimony, pulverized, ten 
grains ; muriatic acid half an ounce. Put the sul- 
phuret of antimony in a large mouth-vial, that will 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 21 

hold three or four ounces, and pour the muriatic 
acid on it. Have a cork well-fitted to the mouth 
of the vial, through the middle of which a hole 
must be made to fit a bent or flexible tube. A 
glass tube is the best, and should be obtained if 
practicable; one that fits accurately, and of such 
shape that one end may remain in the cork, and 
the other pass down through the water. When 
the acid is poured on the sulphuret of antimony, 
the gas will soon rise and pass through the tube, 
down into the water. Care should be taken not 
to inhale the gas, as it is very unpleasant, and apt 
to produce headache. The acid should be hand- 
led carefully, and not allowed to touch the skin of 
the operator or others ; and when the experiment 
has been completed, throw away the contents of 
the vial. 

4. Cream. 

The most common adulteration of cream is with 
rice-meal, arrowroot, and the brains of sheep, ox, 
and, as some assert, even dogs' brains. Rice pow- 
der is frequently put in by pastry-cooks, in fabri- 
cating custards ; the arrowroot is used in the 
dairies. Arrowroot is preferable to rice powder ; 
for when converted with milk into a thick mucilage 
by gentle ebullition, it imparts to cream previously 
diluted with milk a consistence and apparent rich- 
ness that will deceive any one not thinking of such 
imposition. 

The arrowroot powder is mixed up with a small 
quantity of cold skimmed milk, into a perfect, 
smooth, uniform mixture; more milk is then added, 



22 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

and the whole boiled for a few minutes, to effect 
the solution of the arrowroot. This compound, 
when perfectly cold, is mixed up with the cream. 
From 220 to 280 grains (or three teaspoonfuls) of 
arrowroot are added to one pint of milk, and one 
part of this solution is mixed with three of cream. 
The fraud may be detected by adding to a tea- 
spoonful of the so-called cream, a few drops of the 
tincture of iodine, which instantly produces with 
it a dark blue or purple color. Genuine cream 
acquires by this test a faint yellow tinge. I will 
speak again on this subject, when considering 
milk and ice-cream. 

5. Coffee. 

Although coffee is not so often an article in 
which we are cheated, from the fact that many 
persons roast and grind their coffee, still, there is 
no doubt that a majority of the families in cities 
and small towns prefer buying their coffee ready 
ground to save trouble, not thinking that the 
grocer or the manufacturer of coffee would put an 
article of coffee on them that was not good. 

The fraud practised in grinding coffee is, that 
they put with it such things as peas, beans, saw- 
dust and old coffee-grounds. 

To prove to the reader the degree of importance 
attached to this one article in Europe, I will here 
give an extract from a law now in force in Great 
Britain on the subject. Act: "If any burnt, 
scorched, or roasted peas, beans, or other grain, or 
vegetable substance, prepared or manufactured for 
the purpose of being in imitation of, or alleged or 



PKOTECTION OF HEALTH. 23 

pretencletl by the possessor or vender thereof, so 
to be, shall he made or kept for sale, or shall he 
offered or exposed to sale, or shall be found in the 
custody or possession of any dealer or dealers in, 
or seller or sellers of coffee; or if any burnt, 
scorched, or roasted peas, beans, or other grain or 
vegetable substance, or substances, not being cof- 
fee, shall be called by the preparer, manufac- 
turer, possessor, or vender thereof, by the name of 
English or British coffee, or any other name of 
coffee, or by the name of American cocoa, or 
JSnglish or British cocoa, or any other name of 
cocoa, the same respectively shall be forfeited, 
together "with the packages containing the same, 
and shall and may be seized by any officer or offi- 
cers of. excise; and the person or persons prepar- 
ing, manufacturing, or selling the same, or having 
the same in his, her, or their custody or posses- 
sion, or the dealer or dealers in, or seller or sellers 
of coffee or cocoa, in whose custody the same shall 
be found, shall forfeit and lose the sum of one hun- 
dred pounds/' 

Coffee is also adulterated with rye; when they 
are both burnt or roasted together, it is not so 
readily noticed as might be expected. The rye 
can be easily detected by passing an infusion of 
the suspected article through animal charcoal to 
deprive it of its color, and then adding to the 
strained solution some tincture of iodine. A blue 
color will appear if rye is present. 

The same test will answer, if we suspect beans 
or peas, the tincture of iodine acting on the starch 
contained in them. The sawdust is hard to de- 
tect, and the only rule to follow in regard to this, 



24 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

is to make a comparison between the feel of the 
woody fibre and that of coffee. If you put some 
of it between your teeth, and attempt to chew it, 
you will observe a creaking sound similar to that 
produced when small pieces of leather are chewed 
between the teeth; this sound is not heard when 
the coffee is pure. The best rule to adopt about 
your coffee, is never to buy it roasted or ground — 
do this for yourself. 

6. Chocolate. 

Chocolate is often adulterated with rice flour, 
•wheat flour, the flour of potatoes, beans, and peas ; 
and also with fat, the yolk of eggs, almonds, gum 
soap, &c. It is often the case that fecula or 
dreggy materials are mixed with chocolate. 

Test. — Take one ounce of the chocolate, one 
quart of water ; boil these together for ten min- 
utes ; then strain through paper, and add fifteen 
or twenty drops of the tincture of iodine. If the 
chocolate is pure, a yellowish color will be the re- 
sult; if there is fecula in it, a blue color will be 
given to the water. 

The fraud detailed above is bad enough, but 
there are others practised, still worse; for instance, 
sulphuret of mercury and red oxide of lead. They 
are used to impart to the chocolate a fine red 
color. This makes the chocolate of a deeper 
color than the genuine, and also increases its 
weight. To detect these, powder some of the 
chocolate, about half an ounce, and add to it one 
pint of water (cold), and shake well for a few 
minutes; then let it stand for a short time, and 



PROTECTION or UEALTII. 25 

you will see a deposit at the bottom of the vessel 
of a brick-red color. If the article of chocolate 
is good, the deposit will be longer in forming, and 
of a dull-brown color instead of red. 

You may tell if there is any flour, fat, gum, &c. 
(first spoken of) in the chocolate, by the rancid 
smell. Never buy chocolate that has this rancid 
and nauseous smell, it is dangerous to use it. 

If there is any lead present, it can be detected 
by the test given when speaking of cheese. 

7. Common Salt. 

It may be thought strange that I should say 
that as cheap an article as common salt is adulter- 
ated or impure; nevertheless, I must say a few 
words on that point. Common salt, unless it is 
the finest sorts of table salt, is not often intention- 
ally rendered impure, but, from carelessness in 
manufacturing, it often contains chlorides of cal- 
cium and magnesia. 

The fine table salt frequently contains prepara- 
tions of lime. To detect these, put some of the 
salt in strong muriatic acid; if carbonate of lime 
is present, a brisk effervescence will take place. 
To judge of the presence of chlorides, immerse 
some litmus-paper in a solution of the salt, and 
the color will be destroyed immediately, if the 
chlorides are present in an undue quantity. 

8. Plour. 

Having said so much on the subject of bread, I 
do not think it necessary to dwell on the adultera- 
tion of flour separately, but will refer the reader 
3 



26 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

to the remarks on bread, Avliich gives all that is 
necessary. 

9. Hogs' Lard. 

A pure article of lard is ^'hite, having some- 
what the feel of little grains, when rubbed between 
the fingers. It is without taste, and destitute of 
odor. Little as you may think of it, it is unfor- 
tunately true, that lard is deteriorated by other 
substances being put into it, which gives it a dark 
color and rancid smell. Lard may become rancid, 
it is true, even when put up pure; but not if the 
vessel in which it is kept be tight, and not suffered 
to remain open, as we too often see them on our 
streets, in front of a grocery store. Never pur- 
chase lard that is rancid : it is unsafe for prepar- 
ing any article of diet; an instance of which is 

here subjoined : " Mrs. J. D was in the habit 

of sending her nurse out every day with her infant 
(nine months old) for exercise in the open air, and 
gave her generally two pence, to buy some little 
notion for the child at the baker's, where she was 
accustomed to pass. The nurse returned one day 
with the child, and told the lady that it had sud- 
denly taken ill. The child was pale, with cold per- 
spiration, its muscles very much relaxed, and 
seetned in great agony. A physician was called, 
who instituted a series of questions, fearing the 
nurse had accidentally given the child a poisonous 
substance. The nurse told him that she had 
bought two small fried puffs for the child, as usual, 
and that, after eating one of them, he turned pale 
and sick; became, as she expressed it, ^ as limber 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 27 

as a rag,' and not knowing what to do, she ran 
home with him. The pliysician administered an 
emetic, which brought off the food just taken, and 
very soon the child was better. A day or two 
after this, some more fried puffs were bought and 
given to the child, not thinking that they had pro- 
duced the previous illness. The result was the 
same, and the child came near dying from the 
effect of inflammation of the stomach and bowels, 
which followed. The baker was attacked about it, 
who frankly acknowledged that he had used a bar- 
rel of lard recently that was a little rancid." 

This case is, I think, conclusive enough to put 
persons on the lookout for "the secret foe." You 
may easily tell if lard is in the least rancid, by 
putting into it a piece of litmus-paper, which is 
immediately turned of a red color. 

10. Honey. 

There is scarcely an individual but what can 
call to mind some bad effects, resulting from the 
use of honey. From this consideration I am in- 
duced to say a few words in relation to it. 

Its purity can be told generally, by the follow- 
ing characteristics : If fresh and good, it is in a 
fluid state ; this, by keeping, forms a crystalline 
mass. In this state, it is a little variable in color, 
being sometimes white, yellow, or a little darker 
hue. Sand, potato-starch, wheat flour, &c., are 
put into honey to make it heavier and improve the 
color. 

Test. — Put half an ounce of honey into one pint 
of water ; Avhen this dissolves, the sand will sink 



28 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

to tlie bottom, if tliere is any present. Add ten 
drops of the tincture of iodine to one spoonful of 
honey (which has been dissolved in water); if 
there is any starch or flour in it, the liquid in it 
will be turned of a blue color. 

11. Meats. 

According to the classification that I have 
adopted, meats should be considered in this place, 
but I think it best to defer speaking of the dan- 
gers arising from putting up meat in leaden ves- 
sels, &c., until I come to the subject of "Lead." 

12. Milk. 

Milk, of all animal productions, appears to be 
that which nature intended should constitute to 
man in general, and children in particular, an 
agreeable and nutritious food ; as it contains all 
the elements of animal and vegetable life, most 
beautifully balanced and arranged. It is thus a 
most perfect diet. Nothing is wanting to it. It 
contains curd or casein, which is necessary for the 
development and formation of muscle ; butter, for 
the production of an adequate supply of fat ; sugar, 
to feed the respiration, and thereby add warmth 
to the body ; the phosphates of lime and magnesia, 
the peroxide of iron, the chlorides of potassium 
and sodium, with the free soda required to give 
strength and solidity to the bones, together with 
the saline particles so essentially necessary for 
other parts of the body. 

It also contains lactic acid or the acid of milk, 
which chemists inform us is the true acid of the 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 29 

gastric juice, so requisite for the proper dissolving 
and assimilating our food in the stomach. 

It is therefore obvious that milk should be 
chemically correct in all its constituents ; that its 
beneficial effects on the constitution should not be 
neutralized by adulteration. How necessary is it 
that it should be pure ; otherwise, this wonderful 
and wise provision of Providence will be a curse 
rather than a blessing. 

Can it be possible for the milk that is sold in 
large cities to be such as it ought, even if it was 
not adulterated after coming from the cow, when 
the cows, from which the milk is taken, are con- 
stantly confined in ill-constructed, ill-ventilated, 
and improperly-drained places — their milk being 
at the same time formed by such unnatural and 
improper food as brewers and distillers' grains, 
and distillers' wash. The first and chief object of 
food is to form blood, and it is most necessary that 
this should be of a healthy nature, otherwise it is 
impossible for the cows to be healthy, or their 
milk good and wholesome ; their food, then, should 
contain all the proper ingredients for the forma- 
tion of good blood, the milk being drained, as it 
were, from the blood. 

Doctor Thompson states that "the nature of 
milk and blood are parallel, and that to make good 
milk is obviously producing a similar effect to that 
of producing good blood, and consequently contri- 
buting to build up the body of animals in a healthy 
and substantial manner. Again, as the blood of 
cows is identical in composition with that of the 
human species, it is obvious that the diet of one 
class of animals must possess a similar composition 

3* 



30 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

to that of the other."* How especially requisite 
is milk for children, and for the invalid; and how 
necessary that it should be pure; for if milk be 
partaken which has been drawn from diseased 
cows, or that has been adulterated, or both, it is in 
turn taken up in the system of those who use it, 
and many diseases could be easily traced as having 
been sown in the first instance from this cause. 

When we reflect on the many benefits these use- 
ful animals were created to confer on mankind, 
the more we become disgusted Avith the way they 
are housed and fed, to supply the large cities 
with milk; and persons must not think that it is 
confined to New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, 
but all cities of any size are cursed with impure 
milk. Yes, if there are persons mean enough at 
one place to thus trifle with the health and happi- 
ness of a whole community, there are persons at 
every place where there is an inducement for prac- 
tising the fraud ; and where is the city that the 
inducement cannot be found by those that seek 
it? Gain — the thought of obtaining money with 
little labor, is inducement enough for the unprin- 
cipled. ^ 

I will now endeavor to give a little insight into 
the cow-sheds, diseases of the cows, and adultera- 
tion of the milk, &c., as found to exist in all cities 
of any note, but worse in New York than any I 
know of. Any place, any hovel, cow-keepers seem 
to think will do for a cow; narrow lanes, confined 
corners, &c.; and yet they wonder how it is that 

* Tliompson's Experimental Researches on the Food of 
Animals. 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 31 

they lose so many from disease. Can any one 
that has as much sense as would carry him out of 
a Tiouse on fire, wonder that they should be afflict- 
ed with disease, when they are huddled together 
in a space that does not allow them room to breathe, 
with their heads often tied up to a wall; and from 
there not being a sufficient current of air, or ven- 
tilation, the carbonic acid gas expired from their 
lungs, unmixed with a sufficient quantity of pure 
air, so necessary for the oxidation (vivifying) of 
the blood, and consequent vitality of the body, is 
taken into their system ? 

I have myself visited the worst of the cow-sheds 
in this city (New York), and have often found the 
poor brutes in a profuse perspiration, some lying, 
some standing, all in a horrid mass of filth, with an 
almost insupportable smellabout them, moaning and 
turning in every direction, as if in great agony and 
suffering. Placed, as they are, in this situation, 
their milk is entirely unfit to use, even if the viti- 
ated air had no influence on them, and even if the 
distillers' wash, and bad food of every kind, did not 
affect them. Why? for the best of reasons, de- 
duced from physiological facts. Every person 
must have heard of the bad effects so often pro- 
duced on an infant, by taking its mother's breast 
during or immediately after she has been fright- 
ened, becoming greatly enraged, receiving an in- 
jury, becoming suddenly despondent from hearing 
bad news, in short, any thing that has a powerful 
influence on the nervous system. 

Now, if this is the case with the human species 
(and it must be admitted), it must be so with the 
cow ; and what could have a more powerful influ- 



32 DETECTION OP FRAUD AND 

ence on the nervous system, than being tied up 
from day to day with scarcely room to lie down; 
and when they do, on a wet, filthy floor? And 
thus lying in that situation, they soon rub off the 
skin on some part of their body or limbs, and are 
in a continual state of suffering. Their milk being 
taken from them in this condition, and peddled out 
through the city, is given to poor innocent child- 
ren, who, not thinking of danger, are doomed soon 
to fall a prey to its baneful influence, which, if it 
does not result in death at the time, may bring on 
disease of the stomach and bowels — the little suf- 
ferer linger a few weeks of wretched existence, 
the mother's fond heart to be filled with feelings 
of deepest sorrow, and at last bid adieu to her af- 
fectionate babe. 

This perspiration is brought about by the ani- 
mals inhaling a vitiated atmosphere. This neces- 
sarily injures them, exhausts their vigor, and 
makes them liable to take cold; and when they are 
milked in these dirty hovels, the milk is always 
impregnated with the foul air. 

What is the result, when cattle are thus confined, 
and fed with materials that are inimical to their 
health? The result is, that they are attacked 
with disease of the lungs; and what disease is 
brought on by impure air and unwholesome food, 
under all circumstances ? — Consumption and 
TUBERCULOUS DEPOSIT, which runs ra^pidly into 
suppuration ; or softening abscesses, full of matter 
are formed; a portion of this matter is taken up 
and gets into the blood, and through the blood it 
gets into the milk, and those that drink it are 
drinking the seeds uf their own destruction. It 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 33 

is for this reason that the physician advises a lady 
■who has this tuberculous or consumptive deposit 
in her lungs, not to nurse her own child, knowing 
if it takes its mother's milk, it takes into its own 
system the seeds of consumption. 

If, then, there is any truth in physiology, will 
not the one that drinks the milk of the consump- 
tive cow^ take into his system the seeds of con- 
sumption, as readily as the one that takes milk 
from the breast of a consumptive woman ? — most 
certainly he will. 

Milk, taken from such cows, when put under a 
powerful microscope, shows traces of this peculiar 
matter floating in the fluid, mixed with a bloody- 
like corruption. This, when taken into the sto- 
mach of children, or grown persons, as the case 
may be, is absorbed and carried through the sys- 
tem, and thus scatters the deadly poison. Milk of 
this kind has often a very bad smell and taste, to 
hide which the milkman mixes it with a little milk 
from the freshest cow in the shed, and adds also, 
sometimes, sugar of lead, which is a poison of itself, 
when taken into the system even in this slow and 
gradual manner. If it w^ere possibly in the power 
of man to trace the causes of scrofula in one of its 
forms, making its direful appearance in any par- 
ticular case, where previously there existed no 
hereditary taint, it is not at all improbable that it 
might turn out to be from having, sometime or 
other, partaken of milk drawn from cows that 
were diseased, and thus to have become inoculated, 
as it w^ere, with these terrible diseases. 

Worse than this too, we can see that a stimulus 
would be given for the development of these com- 



34 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

plaints, where there existed a predisposition to the 
disease, either by hereditary descent, or other- 
wise. 

I do not pretend to say that every disease Avhich 
afflicts the cow, thus fed and kept in confinement, 
is consumption ; but I believe the majority of 
them to be laboring under that fatal complaint ; 
and if any physician will take the trouble to make 
a dissection of a few cows from one of these cow- 
houses, he will then be convinced of the correct- 
ness of my opinion. "The Parisian Board of 
Health," who were appointed by the French gov- 
ernment to investigate the cause of so much dis- 
ease amongst the cows of the French capital, came 
to the conclusion that the disease was consump- 
tion., and made a report to that effect. 

Whether the disease is consumption or not (I 
do not know what else it could be called), it is evi- 
dent that it is of a pulmonary character, particu- 
larly inflammation of the lungs, &c., which speed- 
ily terminate in suppuration or mattering ; and 
as the cow does not throw off much of the matter 
by coughing, as is the case in the human spe- 
cies, it is again absorbed and gets into the blood, 
and through the blood into the milk. 

What matter they do raise from their lungs 
is as quickly swallowed, when it gets into the 
mouth, as is shown by the large lumps that are 
found in the stomach of some cattle after death, 
and of which every person has heard in the course 
of their lives. This is an explanation of the balls, 
often found in the gastric cavity of cattle, that I 
have never heard given before, and it is original 
with me, though others may have advanced the 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 35 

same views previous to me; if so, I have never 
heard of it. 

The ball is formed as follows: The matter 
coming up from the lungs, which is swallowed on 
reaching the mouth, is mixed in the stomach with 
a portion of hair that thej lick from their bodies, 
and the more thin portions of the matter being 
absorbed, the earthy substance that they take for 
want of salt, and the hair, are concreted together, 
by the glutinous nature of the matter, and is made 
round by the digestive movements of the stomach. 

Cattle also suffer from induration and enlarge- 
ment of the liver, from being fed on stimulating 
slops at the distilleries, just as the drunkard has 
a similar disease from long-continued drinking of 
spirituous liquors. Under this complaint, the cow 
yields but scant amount of milk; still, the little 
milk they do give is added to the common stocky 
thrown into a "big tin," and off goes a man with 
his lyrecious article, to supply his customers with 
" PURE MILK." And, still more to deteriorate the 
milk, it is put into large tin vessels, and carried 
through the streets in the hottest seasons of the 
year, without even a covering sometimes, to the 
wagon. With all its impurity and poisonous qual- 
ities, these men go throughout the city with it, and 
it is consumed by an unreflecting public, who, by 
the proper course, could soon put a stop to its 
being sold in our midst to slay children by thou- 
sands. 

We might just as well think of eating the flesh 
of a sheep that liad died of the common disease, 
"rot," as to drink the milk dravai from unhealthy 
cows. 



36 DETECTION OF FKAUD AND 

To illustrate how necessary it is for the cow, as 
well as for every other animal, to have space to 
breathe, I will here give Doctor Thompson's cal- 
culations on the amount of oxygen, &c., consumed 
in twenty-four hours. He says that ''six pounds 
of carbon are expended by a cow daily in the pro- 
duction of animal heat ; and as one pound of car- 
bon, when combined with the necessary amount of 
oxygen to form carbonic acid, gives out as much 
heat as would melt one hundred and four pounds 
of ice, it is evident that the quantity of ice capa- 
ble of being melted by the heat generated by one 
cow, in one day, would amount to upwards of six 
hundred and twenty-five pounds. It would con- 
sume at the same time the enormous quantity of 
three hundred and thirty thousand four hun- 
dred and twenty-nine cubic inches of oxygen gas, 
or one hundred and ninety-four and a fourth cubic 
feet; and as this amounts to one-fifth of the at- 
mospheric air, we find that one cow consuming 
sixty-one pounds of carbon, for respiratory pur- 
poses, would require nine hundred and fifty-six 
and a half cubic feet of atmospheric air."* 

The carbon consumed by the cow is given ofi* 
from her food, and is required for the purposes of 
respiration, and is retained for some time in the 
circulation, undergoing the proper changes for the 
production of animal heat throughout the body. 

I trust it has now been plainly shown how milch 
cows become diseased, viz., by impure air and im- 
proper food. The morbific principle is introduced 
through the lungs and skin, where it comes in con- 

* Thompson on Food of Animals. 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 37 

tact with the blood; and to show what a vast 
quantity of vitiated air may be taken into the 
lungs during twenty-four hours, it is only neces- 
sary to state that the lungs may be compared to 
a sponge, full of a vast number of minute holes or 
cells ; the number is so great that they have been 
calculated in man to amount to one hundred and 
seventy-four million. 

These cells are furnished with a network of 
bloodvessels, and are of course much more nume- 
rous in cows from the larger surface of their lungs. 
It is therefore a matter of paramount importance 
that the atmosphere, whether inhaled by man or 
beast, should be pure, and free from any admixture 
of a deleterious nature. 

The air of cow-houses is not alone vitiated by 
the exhalation from the lungs of the cows, but from 
the improper drainage of their sheds, and from 
the collections of filth, such as vegetable substances, 
&c., in a state of decomposition. The poisonous 
vapors arising from these accumulations are most 
intolerable. 

In nearly all cities, but more so in this tl\an any 
in America, you will see persons with old carts 
going round the streets, for the purpose of collect- 
ing all the rotten apples, potatoes, peelings of the 
same, sour bread, and every other thing disgust- 
ing to think of, that they can find in the gutters, 
alleys, &c. These substances, in a state of decom- 
position, are carried to the co\r-houses, mixed up 
with a little genuine food, and given to the cows that 
are to supply the public with milk. What a thought 
this is to one that knows how to appreciate good 
and healthy milk. But this is not the worst yet ; 
4 



38 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

after the animals are fed and housed in this way 
for a length of time varying from a few months to 
two years, they become, as a natural consequence, 
■worn down by disease and ill-treatment — bloated 
up like the drunkard — they then being of no fur- 
ther use as milch cows, are killed, and the meat 
sent into market to be consumed by an uncon- 
scious and unthinking people. Not content with 
the frauds practised in dealing out the milk from 
diseased cows — after they are no longer suited for 
that purpose, they must then sell the diseased 
flesh, still further to enhance their own profit, at 
the expense of the life of their fellow-man. 

There is one thing of great importance to the 
cow, that is neglected by nearly all persons having 
charge of them in cow-houses. I refer to rubbing 
or currying of cows; it is scarcely ever attended 
to; huddled together as they are, in filthy cow- 
sheds, they go without currying, and, thus ne- 
glected, the pores of their skin become filled up, 
and an effete substance, that nature intended should 
pass off by this channel, is retained in the system. 
What then becomes of it? Nature, ever ready to 
supply a deficiency, sets to work to get rid of this 
substance by some other outlet; and the mam- 
mary glands in this case being better adapted for 
the purpose than any other part of the body, it is 
carried off along with the milk, and consumed by 
those that buy it, to use alone, or in coffee and tea^ 
or made into milk punchy custards, &c. 

This effete substance being taken along with the 
milk into the stomach, is absorbed and deposited 
in the human system, every day that a drop of it 
is used. This substance, so inimical to the healthy 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 39 

functions in the system, soon sets up a permanent 
predisposition to the development of disease, and 
the slightest cause is sufficient to call it into ac- 
tion. Still, with all these astounding facts before 
the public, they seem as yet to have let it pass 
unheeded; but I think now that they will be 
aroused to a sense of their danger, and reflect 
seriously on the means to be made use of for put- 
ting a stop to the murderous traffic. 

Cows are fed (besides the articles before spoken 
of) on brewers and distillers' grains and distillers* 
wash; in fact, it is considered their staple food. 
Cow-keepers fancy that it produces a quantity of 
milk; but in this I think they are mistaken; and 
even though it should, it is at the expense of the 
health of the cow, and the quality of her milk — 
for it is of a very watery character, and of a most 
corrupt nature, as the blood from which it is se- 
creted has been stimulated to an undue and inflam- 
matory^— a feverish condition ; and nothing can 
be given off from the blood, while in this condi- 
tion, that is of a healthy nature. 

It has been ascertained that cows, fed in this 
way, soon have enlarged and hardened or indu- 
rated livers, and, from this organ not being able 
duly to perform its functions, they are frequent- 
ly subject to the "yellows," or jaundice. When a 
cow becomes thus aff'ected the secretion of milk is 
quite limited, and what is yielded is of a yellowish 
and stringy nature, their udders becoming hardened 
and suppurated; the milk is changed into a fluid 
resembling matter, and smells most ofl'ensively. 

When we reflect on the variety of diseases in 
which milk diet is a valuable article, how import- 



40 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

ant it is for medical men to know what sort of sPn 
article tliey are ordering for their patients. 

lie may order a milk diet and go oif, not think- 
ing of the importance of it, and be summoned 
again in a few hours ; and when he arrives, finds 
his little patient much worse, perhaps dead; the 
mother greets him with, "Doctor, what did you 
do to my child? you have killed it." What must 
be that physician's feelings at that moment. All 
this could have been avoided by prohibiting the 
use of the milk, which is so impure. 

When I am called to attend children in the sum- 
mer months, suffering with cholera infantum, the 
first thing I do is to ask if the child uses milk; the 
reply generally is, that it does; I then tell the 
parents that they must not give the child any more 
poisonous milk, at which they seem astonished, 
until I tell them a little of the bad quality of milk 
in this city. They quit giving the child the milk, 
and in a few days, it is tvell, having taken nothing 
but some allspice tea, nutmeg, and loaf sugar and 
bread. 

Case I. — Was called early one morning to see 
a little boy, who was vomiting incessantly. Found 
him greatly prostrated, bathed in a cold clammy 
perspiration, a fluttering and feeble pulse, retch- 
ing and vomiting everj few minutes, and cold ex- 
tremities. Was informed that the child had drunk 
half a pint of milk a few minutes before, fresh fro7n 
the milkman, and was soon after taken with the 
symptoms above described. The case was very 
plain — the milk had poisoned the child. By giv- 
ing powerful medicines the child's life was saved, 
but it lingered for more than four weeks in a cri- 
tical condition, all caused from the milk. 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 41 

Case II. — Was called, to go in haste, to see a 
child thought to be poisoned. On arriving, found 
the child lying on its mother's lap, its eyes closed, 
weak and feeble pulse, hard breathing, and in a 
profound stupor. This case was inquired into ; 
the child had taken milk, also; and soon after 
taking it, became drowsy, and could not be 
aroused. All remedies failed to do it any good, 
and it died twenty-six hours after. 

Case III. — Was requested to see a child that 
had been under the care of one or two physicians 
for three weeks. On reaching the house and mak- 
ing inquiry into the case, received the following 
statement: "The child has been affected with 
chronic diarrhoea, for more than four weeks, all 
remedies having no effect on it." 

" Madam, has your child been allowed the use 
of milk during its sickness?" 

"Yes, Doctor, boiled milk and arrowroot has 
been its principal diet." 

This explained the case to me clearly. I told 
the parents not to allow the child any more milk; 
ordered some mild astringent and tonic, bathing 
once a day, and in five or six days the little child 
was able to run about the room. 

Other cases could be given, but the above I con- 
sider sufficient. 

Having spoken of the diseased condition of the 
cows, &c., I will now call your attention for a mo- 
ment to the substances with which milk is adul- 
terated, after being taken from the cow, and in 
doing so, I fear that many will think. I have ex- 
aggerated, but such is not the case; I have no 
cause for doing so. 



42 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

The substances usually employed for the pur- 
pose of adulterating milk, are vv'ater, flour, starch, 
chalk, the brains of sheep^ .calves, oxen, hogs, and, 
as I have been credibly informed, the brains also 
of DOGS and horses, when the others cannot be 
obtained, and these latter are to be had. There 
is a regular market for the heads of all these ani- 
mals, but no one ever seems to think what is done 
with them. If you ask a person that takes heads 
to certain men to sell, what is done with them, he 
is as apt to tell you soap-fat, as any thing else, 
Hozv probable it seems, but don't believe a word of 
it ; the heads occupy a certain space in the " big 
tin,'' rest assured of it. 

I am well aware that there are those who will 
deny this; pay no attention to them, but look out 
for yourself, and see if they are not partners of a 
cow-keeper in the suburbs of the city. I hope 
you will bear with me for one moment, while I ofl'er 
some reasons for what I have stated above. 

In the first place, all will admit that the milk 
sold in cities is very poor, very impure. Well, if 
persons are mean enough, that are engaged in 
selling milk, to put into it such things as flour, 
chalk, starch, and things of that kind, will they 
not be mean enough to put into it sheeps' brains 
and calves' brains? (Admitted.) If they are un- 
principled enough to put in sheep and calf brains, 
will they not be as much so as will cause them to 
put in the brains of the dog, horse, ox, or any- 
thing else they can lay hands on. I leave it to 
your own good reason to decide. 

If you are convinced that a man will steal one 
dollar, you are convinced that he will steal one 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 43 

thousand, if he can get it. If a man will engage 
in a traffic that he knows is daily slaying its hun- 
dreds of human lives, in the name of humanity, in 
the name of God, what is there he will not do? 

I trust now, that you can no longer doubt the 
truth of what has been set forth in regard to the 
adulteration of milk, and here let me say another 
word before proceeding to give the tests for the 
presence of the adulterations. Some persons will 
say that " poor people do not get good milk, but 
the better classes have a good article." What a 
sad mistake, and more than this: in most cities 
there are families who keep their own cows, and 
thus think to obtain good, pure milk. They too 
are mistaken very often, for those into whose care 
the cows are put have learned that, by adding 
water, starch, a little sugar, and such things, they 
can make milk in abundance from one or two cows, 
and thus sell a few shillings worth every day. It 
is easy to see the inducement, the profit arising 
from selling the milk amounts to more than their 
wages. 

They keep practising their hand until they get 
about as smart as the milkmen — watch for your- 
self and be convinced. 

As the question may be asked, "how do they 
make brains have the appearance of milk," I 
will give the process. They take the brains and 
rub them up with their hands (which are none of 
the cleanest), having previously put the brains in 
warm water. The lighter and more stringy por- 
tions are skimmed off generally, but if they are 
much hurried they let it remain, thinking that 
their customers will take it for cream, or that it is 



44 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

none of their business — enough for them to buy, 
pay for, and use it. I have, at different times, 
myself seen these stringy portions floating in my 
cup of coffee or tea, but made an excuse not to 
thus devour the poor animal's brain, by telling the 
landlady, "I dont use milk in my tea, if you 
please.'' I was then living in a boarding-house, 
bear in mind. 

On one occasion, I took the trouble to examine 
the substance, and found it to be ''one of the deli- 
cate membranes of the brain,'' since which time I 
have not used any milk, unless I am in the coun- 
try among acquaintances. "Go and do likewise," 
abandon the use of the poison, and soon the milk- 
man may split his throat hallooing "pure milk," 
but no go — false alarm. 

Another imposition palmed off on the public is, 
that every milkman "brings his milk from a dis- 
tance in the country." This he tells to his custo- 
mers to make them think they are getting good 
milk ; its all stuff, don't believe a word of it. You 
can't find one family in this city (New York) but 
what ''gets milk fresh from the country," and yet 
there are hundreds of cows kept in the city; yes, 
in one place you can find hundreds huddled to- 
gether on a spot of ground not one hundred yards 
square. 

There are many that bring milk from a short 
distance in the country, but what better is the milk 
by that ? The cows are fed the same way and 
housed the same way, in some degree. And they 
are not groomed any more than they are in the 
city; the men, too, in the country, are as likely to 
put all these adulterations in the milk before tak- 
ing it to the city, as those are that live in the city; 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 45 

if any difference, I would rather risk milk that 
comes from the city, as those living in the country 
do not consider themselves under the restraint 
they would in a city, but can come in and go out 
at pleasure. 

But I did not quite finish a description of the 
process for making milk from brains. After rub- 
bing the brains up in the way spoken of, for a 
short time, a white, milky-looking emulsion is the 
result. This is stirred up with the quantity of 
water which is intended to be added to the milk. 
The brains materially improve the appearance of 
the milk, giving it a rich tint. 

Cream is more extensively adulterated than 
milk with brains, they having a color nearer 
that of cream. 

Scene at a Cow-house. — Imagine (and not only 
imagine but believe), for it happened not long since 
in this city, a man near by where two of the milk- 
men, partners, are talking. 

To7n. — "I say. Jack, Mrs. Goodlin wants half a 
gallon of cream; have you got any made ?" Not 
quite certain whether the name was Goodlin or not. 

Jack. — ''No, Tom, none called for to-day, and 
I didn't make any; lean soon make some, though, 
if you want it." 

Tom. — " How many long-noses (sJieeps'' heads), 
have you got?" 

Jack. — "Three, and had to pay eighteen pence 
for them, and arrowroot is some higher, too." 

Tom. — "Well, go and make the cream, while I 
draw water to fill up the big tin. I believe old 
Biddy is a dying sure enough, but tell Bill to milk 
her once more any how. (Exit Tom with a big 
bucket, going after water.) 



46 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

I hope mj readers will excuse this varying from 
the subject, but it was so good I could not refrain 
from giving it. 

One of the most certain and active poisons put 
into milk is, as I before said, sugar of lead. The 
sugar of lead when put into water, makes it have 
a milky appearance, by forming a carbonate of 
lead, which is held in solution. The test for the 
lead is sulphuretted hydrogen. This is to be pass- 
ed through a small quantity of the milk, say half 
a pint, and immediately the fluid will be turned of 
a dark brown or black color, if there is any lead 
present. The same rules are to be observed in 
this instance, as in every other where sulphuret- 
ted hydrogen gas is made use of as a test. For a 
full description of its application, and also for the 
rule in making it, see article Cheese, previously 
spoken of. 

It would be unnecessary to repeat the process 
in this place, as it is in every respect the same in 
both cases. 

Salt is sometimes put into milk to impart a taste 
which will cover that of something else not so 
pleasant. If they happen to put in so much wkter 
as to make the thinness of the milk too apparent, 
they add a little flour or whiting to make it thick 
again. 

Another imposition is that of taking the first 
milk of the cow after calving, instead of allowing 
the calves to have it (which are removed from the 
mother when not more than two days old, killed, 
and sent into market as veal), to whom it justly 
belongs, and is not fit to use by any human being. 

Many of the milkmen carry their milk in tin yes- 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 47 

sels, unprotected from the heat of the sun, which 
in summer and fall is such as to cause the milk to 
turn sour very soon. This could be remedied by sur- 
rounding the tin vessels with a wet cloth or ice. 
Should the milk become sour before they go their 
rounds, they soon neutralize it by adding some 
carbonate of soda. 

Having spoken at some length of the diseased 
milch cow, the adulterations, &c., I will now give 
the tests for most of the substances mixed with 
milk. To. detect flour or starch in milk, take one 
ounce of the suspected article and drop into it 
gradually twenty drops of the tincture of iodine. 
If either of these substances are present, the milk 
will become of a blue color. 

Chalk or plaster of Paris can be detected as fol- 
lows: Take half a teacupful of the milk, let it 
stand for two hours; then pour off the milk slowly, 
and you will see the chalk at the bottom. To 
prove that it is chalk, add a large quantity of 
water, near half a pint, and then pour on it some 
sulphuric acid (oil vitriol), and a precipitate of the 
sulphate of lime is the result. 

When there is much water in milk it is of a 
bluish color instead of pure white. 

Unfortunately, it has hitherto been a difficult 
matter to tell when the brains of animals had been 
made use of in fabricating milk, except by the 
microscope, in the absence of which, I present you 
a test much more simple and equally as good: 
Take one quart of the suspected milk, put it into 
an open vessel, and set it where it will keep a lit- 
tle warm, and let it remain for thirty-six or forty- 
eight hours ; then take it and smell of it and you 



48 DETECTION OF FKAUD AND 

can at once detect the peculiar odor of decompos- 
ing animal substance. Some will say "that any 
milk will smell bad in that time under the circum- 
stances." It will smell sour, but will not have the 
peculiar smell of decomposing animal matter, 
unless it is present — it is impossible. This is 
the first time any simple and efficient test has 
been given to detect the brains in milk, which I 
claim as first given by me. Before closing this 
article, it may not be amiss to say a few words 
about how the evil could be remedied. The at- 
tention that this subject requires should be paid 
to it ; it is of grave and paramount importance. 
The following is taken from the Veterinary Re- 
cord for April, 1848, and it quotes from a New 
York paper of that year. "There is on Long Is- 
land, near Brooklyn, several manufactories of milk, 
the process of which should be known. One of these 
dairies covers a space of six hundred feet front by 
three hundred feet deep, carefully fenced in so as 
to be as private as possible; the business of the 
people being to drink the milk, not to know how it 
is made; in which inclosure four hundred cows are 
kept the whole year round. These cows are fed 
on the refuse slops of whiskey-distillers, and it is 
given to them warm. Such is the fondness of 
cows for this vile compound, that after having fed 
upon it for a week or more, their appetites become 
so depraved that they will take no other food. 
'How like unto man.' The result is, their milk- 
producing organs are stimulated to a wonderful de- 
gree; they yield enormously but soon become dis- 
eased; their gums ulcerate, their teeth fall out, 
and their breath becomes fetid. Though thus 
diseased, they do not fall away in flesh, but on the 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 49 

contrary, puff up and bloat, an appearance of 
great fatness; their joints become stiff that they 
cannot with ease lie down, and rarely or never 
come out alive. 

"Bad as this is, their milk is afterwards mixed 
with molasses, water, and whiting, and then sold 
to the public of New York as pure milk. It is of 
course very injurious to children, who use it in 
much greater quantities than adults." 

Let the authorities of every city at once take 
steps to put a stop to this high-handed murder. 
No sooner than a man has taken the life of one of 
his fellow-beings in the heat of passion, than he 
is arraigned before a bar of justice, and made to 
answer the demands of the law; whereas, there 
are those that can deal out a deadly poison to 
thousands, and remain in their glory and go un- 
molested. Such things should not be tolerated in 
this land ofboasted freedom. 

In some parts of Europe, the government has 
officers for the express purpose of looking after the 
milk trade, and no milk is allowed to enter the 
cities without first being inspected by these offi- 
cers, and any unhealthy cow-houses are torn down 
as a public nuisance. Any person found guilty of 
adulterating milk in any way, is immediately prose- 
cuted. No milk taken from diseased or unhealthy 
cows is allowed to be sold, but the cows thus dis- 
eased are killed, the hides, horns, &c., are sold and 
the flesh destroyed to prevent its being sold as 
food. 

If some such law as this was put in force in this 
country, and every milkman found guilty of viola- 
ting it was prosecuted, the time would soon come 
5 



60 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

when we would have pure milk in cities as well as 
in the country. 

It is indeed a lamentable thought that such 
things are allowed in an enlightened community, 
and if they are to continue, what will they lead to? 
Soon every article of diet and drink will share the 
same fate; indeed, it is the case now to an alarm- 
ing extent, and it is high time that the public 
were on the lookout ; when once informed on this 
subject, they will be utterly astonished. If any 
one thinks I have exaggerated in my description, 
let him look for himself, and unless he closes his 
eyes to every sight before him, he will be con- 
vinced — he will come to the same conclusion that 
I have done. 

In conclusion, let me say that I hope that what 
has been said will arouse the public on this im- 
portant subject, and if the city authorities do not 
take some steps to put a stop to this every-day mur- 
der, let the public make a resolve that they will 
not allow the poison to come into their houses, or 
be used in any way, and by so doing save from de- 
struction those that are near and dear to our 
hearts, and no longer sow the seeds of destruction 
in the system of those that otherwise might ever 
remain free from the fatal disease. 

I am much gratified to see that a lively interest 
has been taken in this matter by one of the public 
journals of this city, and I humbly trust that every 
journal throughout the country will take as much 
interest as this has done, and use their influence 
in putting a stop to such flagrant imposition on the 
public. 

The journal to which I refer is The New York 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 51 

Herald, and the editor deserves great credit for 
what he has done in the matter, which he has treated 
of at some length. The following is an extract from 
the Herald of July, 1851. After giving the 
weekly mortality in the city of New York (in which 
three hundred and twenty-one children under five 
years of age died), he says: *'Now in what man- 
ner have the laws of nature been violated — for it 
is only by assuming that they have been violated, 
that we can account for this dreadful loss of life. 
According to the investigation which has been 
given to the subject — according to the concurrent 
testimony of chemists and medical men— accord- 
ing to observation and reason — according to expe- 
riments made at different times and according to 
the dictates of philosophy, nine-tenths of the 
deaths which occur at this season of the year, 
among our infantile population are produced by 
that abominable, noisome, nauseating, and health- 
destroying mixture known as distillery milk. It 
has been demonstrated by the Academy of Medi- 
cine that this vile stuff acts as an active poison on 
the delicate systems of children * * * * *." 

I have been very greatly indebted to Dr. H. 
Hodson Rugg (corresponding member of the Na- 
tional Vaccine establishment, &c.), for the most 
useful information on this important subject. And 
now let me fondly hope that what has been said in 
relation to milk will not have been in vain, but be 
the means of doing much good to my fellow-beings. 

13. Pickles. 

Very many vegetable substances are now pre- 
served in the condition termed pickle, by the an- 



52 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

tiseptic power of vinegar, whose sale very fre- 
quently depends much upon a fine, lively green 
color; and the consumption of which, by sea-faring 
people in particular is prodigious ; they are often 
intentionally colored by means of some prepara- 
tion of copper. 

Many fatal consequences are known to have en- 
sued from the use of these stimulants of the palate, 
to which the fresh and pleasing hue has been 
imparted, according to the deadly formula laid 
down in some modern cook-books, such as boiling 
the pickles with pieces of copper, or suffering them 
to stand for a considerable time in brass vessels. 

I will here give the particulars of a case, prov- 
ing the poisonous qualities of pickles impregnated 
with copper: "A young lady who was very fond 
of pickles, ate two or three cucumber pickles on 
Sunday before dinner. She soon complained of 
pain in the region of the stomach which was almost 
intolerable. On Thursday morning following, she 
was taken with vomiting, which continued until 
Saturday, eleven o'clock A. M. The vomiting 
now ceased, and her stomach became greatly dis- 
tended, which continued until Monday evening, 
(nine days after eating the pickles), when she died. 
On examination after death, one or two perfora- 
tions were found in the stomach, caused, no doubt, 
from the copper. 

Test for cop)j)er in pickles. — Cut some pieces 
of the pickle, and pour on it some liquid ammonia, 
diluted with an equal bulk of water ; if there is 
the smallest quantity of copper present, the am- 
monia assumes a blue color. 



PROTECTION OP HEALTH. 53 



14. Sago. 

The sago that is mostly used at the present day 
IS called pearl sago, which is usually found in little 
pearly grains. They do not dissolve in water, but 
when put into warm or hot water, they swell up 
and become translucent, and makes a soft mucila- 
ginous mass, very suitable for sick persons that 
cannot bear an irritating diet. 

The common starch made of potatoes is fre- 
quently sold to persons unacquainted with sago, 
as good pearl sago. It is difficult to detect tlie 
cheat, but you may tell a good article of sago by 
the grainy feel it has, and by its not being lumpy, 
as is the case with potato starch. 

15. Tea. 

How often is it the case, that sugar is made use 
of for the purpose of improving the taste of various 
articles of food ! It must be admitted that it is 
very palatable and very pleasant to use it, but at 
the same time it is an unfortunate thing that it is 
used so often and so plentifully in tea, for by put- 
ting the sugar with what you think is tea, you are 
only adding sugar .to cover the taste of elder 
leaves, ash leaves, and many others equally as dis- 
gusting to think of. 

In proof of this statement, it is only necessary 
to refer to a case of prosecution recently given in 
one of the London newspapers. It was in sub- 
stance as follows: "On day of— E. 

^ ; — ^'as arrested for fabricating and manu- 
facturing large quantities of spurious tea, i.e. mix- 



54 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

ing with the genuine tea leaves those of the ash^ 
elder, she, and some others. It was proved that 

the said E. R had large quantities of this 

spurious tea in his possession, and had sold the 
same as genuine, and from which cause several 
persons were made sick by using said spurious 
tea.'' The verdict returned was "that the said 

E. R be fined the sum of 2000 pounds, and 

all such tea as was found in his possession should 
be destroyed, and in default of the payment of the 
same, shall be committed to the House of Correc- 
tion for the period of not more than twelve nor 
less than six months." In another case of prose- 
cution for a like offence, one witness made the fol- 
lowing statement: "I am John K , have 

been in the employ of J. M , a grocer, in 

Goldstone Street, for two years. I have seen the 
leaves of the ash, white thorn, and elder mixed 
with tea leaves. The process is this: To make 
the leaves have the appearance of tea, they are 
first boiled, then baked upon an iron plate, and 
when dry, rubbed with the hand in order to pro- 
duce that curl which the genuine tea has. The 
color is given them generally by logwood; this is 
to make the black tea ; to make the green tea, 
after the leaves are dried they are laid on sheets 
of copper, where they receive their color from an 
article called Dutch j^ink.'" Thus we see what is 
used when we think we are taking tea, and this is 
not yet the worse imposition, for there is one that 
\^ positively poisonous; I allude to the '''verdigris''^ 
which is added to the Dutch pink, to produce the 
fine green bloom, observable in the finest qualities 
of China tea. So it is a notable fact that, when 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 55 

we imagine we are taking a pleasant and nutri- 
tious beverage, we are taking a slow poison. I 
can bring a host of the most respectable physicians 
that will say that in the course of their practice 
they have often been called to persons suddenly 
attacked, and on reaching the patient they were 
told that they were perfectly well until tea, and a 
few minutes after rising from the table, they were 
seized with great pain in the stomach, nausea, 
retching and vomiting, followed by great faintness 
and cold perspiration. In such cases, though the 
family would attribute the sudden illness to this 
and that cause, and the physician would not 
be suspecting any danger from the use of the tea, 
there can be no doubt that the real cause was 
poisonous tea. I recollect a case that goes far to 
prove this, which was related by a physician living 
in one of the Southern States. "I was stopping 
a short time at a little village, and one night about 
nine o'clock the place was one scene of excitement 
and confusion. On inquiry, I learned that a phy- 
sician had been sent for to attend a family that 
was said to be 2^oisoned. Having some little curi- 
osity to see the case, I rode out with the attending 
physician. When we arrived, we learned that 
after tea several members of the family were taken 
with symptoms of being poisoned, and only those 
that drank tea that evening were sick. The re- 
maining portion of the tea was examined, and we 
detected the ^verdigris' in it." 

Mode of ascertaining the adulterations in tea. — 
To ascertain whether other leaves have been sub- 
stituted for the genuine tea leaves, proceed as fol- 
lows : Take some few of the leaves, macerate them 



56 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

in water for a short time, and then spread them 
out between pieces of paper, and press until dry. 

If the leaves correspond with the illustration 
given in figure No. 1, thej are genuine tea leaves, 
if not it is a cheat of some kind, and you may de- 
pend on it. The shape you will see is slender 
and narrow, the edges deep, serrated, and their 
ends acutely pointed. 

In figure No. 2, is represented the spurious 
tea. The leaves you can see are more rounded 
and also more obtusely pointed ; and the serra- 
tions on the edges are not so deep. Some may 
say that tea leaves differ in size, &c., according to 
the quality. The leaves of some specimens may be 
larger than others, but their shape is all the same, 
for all the different kinds of tea imported from 
China are the produce of the same species of plant, 
and the difference between the Green, Souchong, 
and the Black Tea, depends chiefly upon the cli- 
mate, soil, culture, age of the plant, and mode of 
drying. 

If you take spurious black tea, and moisten it 
slightly, then rub on a sheet of white paper, it 
produces immediately a bluish-black stain ; and 
makes, when thrown into cold water, a tincture of 
like color, which becomes reddened by putting into 
it a drop or two of oil of vitriol. If the tea is 
genuine, when thrown into cold soft water, it pro- 
duces an amber color, and this does not become 
reddened by the oil of vitriol. 

To detect the preparation of copper take a small 
quantity of tea, put into a vial and add some 
liquor ammonia (spirits hartshorn), and shake 
them together; if the copper is present you will 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 67 

see the mixture turn of a sapphire-blue tinge. A 
little water should be added to the ammonia be- 
fore putting it in the vial. Green tea, colored by 
carbonate of copper, when thrown into water that 
has had sulphuretted hydrogen passed through it, 
becomes of a black color. Genuine tea undergoes 
no such change. More minute tests could be 
given, but the above are considered sufficient for 
any person to tell when they are using a genuine 
article of tea, or one that can be bought for a less 
price, and impregnated with poisonous substances, 
and if persons will knowingly and willingly take a 
slow poison, they must abide the consequences. 

16. Tapioca. 

The tapioca is adulterated very often, but as the 
detection of the ingredients used is difficult,*it is 
useless occupying space in speaking longer on the 
subject. For the detection of the adulteration, 
&c., in this article, the reader is referred to the 
rem.arks under Article 14, Class I, 



58 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 



CLASS II. 

SPIRITUOUS AND MALT LIQUORS, &c. 

1. Beer.— =2. Brandy.— 3. Gin.— 4. Porter.— 5. Rum.— 6.; 
Wines. — 7. Whiskey. 

1. Beer. 

This favorite beverage is greatly adulterated, 
and that too with substances detrimental to health 
in the extreme. The brewer should not use any 
ingredients in his brewings except malt and hops; 
but it too often happens that those who suppose 
they are drinking beer made of these ingredients 
only, are drinking a compound made up in the most 
horrid manner. And it is not the poor alone that 
are thus deceived, but it is all classes of society that 
are exposed to the nefarious fraud. 

Beer is not only adulterated with unwholesome 
ingredients, by retail grocers, but the brewers are in 
the habit of mixing up substances in their enchant- 
ing cauldrons that are revolting to think of. To 
illustrate to what extent this sophistication, and 
in what manner it has been carried on in breweries 
and other places, I will give an extract from the 
British laws on this subject, viz. : "No druggist, 
vender of or dealer in drugs, or chemist, or other 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 59 

person shall sell or deliver to any licensed brewer, 
dealer in, or retailer of beer, knowing him to be 
such, or shall sell or deliver to any person on ac- 
count of, or in trust for any such brewer, dealer or 
retailer, any liquor called by the name of or sold 
as coloring, from whatever material the same may 
be made, or any material or preparation other than 
unground brown malt, for darking the color of 
worts or beer, or any liquor or preparation made 
use of for darkening the color of worts or beer, or 
any molasses, honey, vitriol, quassia, cocculus in- 
^icus, grains of paradise, guinea pepper, or opium, 
or any extract or preparation to be used in worts 
or beer for or as a substitute for malt or hops; and 
if any druggist shall oflfend, in any of these par- 
ticulars, such liquor, preparation, molasses, &c., 
shall be forfeited, and may be seized by any officer 
of excise, and the person so offending shall, for each 
offence, forfeit X500.'' 

Thisis given merely to put people in this country 
to thir^king. It must be seen from this that such 
has been the poisonous adulterations in this article 
in England, that the public could not consider 
themselves safe, and petitioned for the law, an ex- 
tract of which is given above, and which law now 
stands in full force. If persons have the audacity, 
under the crown, to do such diabolical deeds, what 
will they not do in this land of boasted liberty, 
where they know the laws are not so stringent on 
this point. 

Although this is a land of freedom, and thank 
God that it is, we should not allow those that manu- 
facture such articles as are for public consumption, 



60 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

to make them poisonous, to deal the weapons of 
disease and death amongst thousands. One adul- 
teration of beer consists in adding quassia, which 
gives the beer a bitter taste, and this is a substitute 
for hops ; but hops possess amore agreeable aromatic 
flavor, and there is reason also to believe that they 
render beer lessliabletospoil by keeping; aproperty 
which does not belong to quassia. It requires but 
little discrimination to distinguish very clearly the 
peculiar bitterness of quassia in adulterated beer. 
Vast quantities of the shavings of this wood are 
sold in a half terrified and ground state to disguise 
its obvious character ; and to prevent its being re- 
cognized among the waste material of the brewers. 

Wormwood has likewise been used by fraudulent 
brewers. Beer made bitter by quassia never keeps 
well unless it be stored in a place where the tempe- 
rature of the surrounding atmosphere is much 
higher than the apartment where it is kept, and 
this is not so easy to accomplish in large estab- 
lishments. 

The use of boiling the worts of beer with hops 
is partly to communicate a peculiar aromatic flavor 
which the hop contains, partly to cover the sweet- 
ness of undecomposed saccharine m.atter, and also 
to separate by virtue of the gallic acid and tannin 
it contains, a portion of a peculiar vegetable muci- 
lage, somewhat resembling gluten, which is still 
diffused through the beer. 

The compound thus made separates into small 
flakes like those of curdled soap; and by this 
means the beer is not so liable to spoil, for nothing 
contributes to the conversion of beer, or any other 
vinous fluid, into vinegar more than mucilage. 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 61 

Hence, also, all full-bodied and clammy ales, 
abounding in mucilage, and which are generally 
ill-fermented, do not keep as perfect ale ought to 
do. 

Quassia is, therefore, unfit as a substitute for 
hops, and even some hops are preferable to others; 
for nitrate of silver and acetate of lead produce a 
more abundant precipitate from an infusion of one 
sample than another ; the difference may consist 
in the time at which the hops are gathered from 
the vine. Capsicum (Cayenne pepper), and grains 
of Paradise, two very acrid substances, are made 
use of to give a pungent taste to weak, insipid beer. 
From the foregoing facts, it must be obvious that 
the adulteration of ale is not a matter of imagina- 
tion. 

The fraudulent grocer has a process by which he 
can make new beer appear old, and thus more readily 
sell it. The process consists in an admixture 
of sulphuric acid (oil vitriol) with the beer. An 
imitation of the age of eighteen months is thus 
produced in an instant. This is technically called 
^' to bring beer forward^'" or ''make it liard,''' 

It can be seen at a glance that the practice is a 
bad one. The genuine, old, or entire beer, of the 
honest brewer, is quite a different compound ; it 
has a rich, generous, full-bodied taste, without 
being acid, and having a vinous odor; but it may, 
perhaps, not be generally known that this kind of 
beer always affords less proportion of alcohol than 
is produced from mild beer. If, on the other hand, 
the brewer has too large a stock of old beer on his 
bands, recourse is had to an opposite practice of 
converting stale, half-spoiled, or sour beer into mild 
6 



62 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

beer hj the simple admixture of an alkali or alka- 
line earth. 

Oyster-shell powder and subcarbonate of potash 
or soda are usually employed. These substances 
neutralize the excess of acid, and render sour beer 
some\Yhat palatable. These sophistications may 
be considered at first as minor crimes practised by 
fraudulent brewers, when compared with other 
methods employed by them, which renders beer 
noxious to health by the addition of substances 
absolutely injurious. To increase the intoxicating 
quality of beer, the deleterious vegetable substance, 
called cocculus indicus^ and the extract of this poi- 
sonous berry, technically called '^ black extract," or 
by some ''''hard mullum,'' are employed. 

Opium, tobacco, nux vomica, and extract of 
poppies, have also been used. 

That a minute portion of an unwholesome ingre- 
dient taken daily in beer, cannot fail to be pro- 
ductive of mischief, admits of no doubt; and there 
is reason to believe that a small quantity of nar- 
cotic substance (and cocculus indicus is a powerful 
narcotic), daily taken into the stomach, together 
with an intoxicating liquor, is more certain in its 
efi"ects than it would be without the liquor. 

The effects may be gradual ; and a strong con- 
stitution, especially if it be assisted with constant 
and hard labor, may counteract the destructive 
consequences perhaps for many years, but it never 
fails to show its baneful effects at last. Let me 
cite one circumstance in proof of this: It is a well- 
established fact that porter drinkers and beer 
drinkers are very liable to apoplexy and palsy ; 
and here we have an explanation of it — the spirits 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 63 

and the narcotic substance, keeping a constant 
afflux of blood to the head, produce the disease. 
Salt is also added to beer to increase the thirst of 
the consumers. Sulphate of iron (green vitriol), 
is added to beer sometimes to give it the property 
of frothing. 

Detection of Frauds in^Beer. — The detection of 
the adulterations of beer with deleterious veget- 
able substances, unfortunately is, as yet, beyond 
the reach of chemical science. Some persons may 
ask, "How then is it known they are put into it?" 
By the materials being found in their possession, 
and they could give no excuse why they had them, 
and by the undue stupefying efifects of the beer. 

Sulphate of iron may be detected by evaporating 
the beer to dryness, and burning away the veget- 
able matter obtained, by the action of chlorate of 
potash in a red-hot crucible. 

The sulphate of iron will be left behind among 
the residue in the crucible, which, when dissolved 
in water, may be assayed for the constituent parts 
of the salt, namely, iron and sulphuric acid; for 
the former, by tincture of galls, ammonia, and 
prussiate of potash; and for the latter, by muri- 
ate of barytes. 

If beer has been made hard by sulphuric acid, 
it affords a white precipitate (sulphate of barytes), 
by dropping into it a solution of acetate or muri- 
ate of barytes; and this precipitate, when collected 
by straining the mass, and after having been 
dried and heated red-hot for a few minutes in a 
platina crucible, does not disappear by the addi- 
tion of nitric or muriatic acid. I know this is a 
test only applicable for professional men, and am 



64 ^ DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

sorry that more accurate tests could not be given, 
and more so about the narcotic materials which 
should be detected, if possible. Should a second 
edition of this work be called for, I hope to be able 
to give some test for them and many others that 
are now obscure. Untiring researches after truth 
seldom fail to bring forth its reward, and labor- 
ing under this conviction, I will use my best efforts 
to detect fraud wherever I can. 

2. Brandy. 

Brandy is adulterated with many articles. The 
brownish-yellow color, concerning which many are 
mistaken, thinking it is a color given to it by some 
dyewood or burnt sugar, is nothing more than the 
color acquired by being kept in vessels of oak- 
wood. 

Some retail dealers, indeed not a few, sell under 
the name of brandy, an article made up of alcohol 
diluted with water, and colored with something to 
give it the appearance of being '^old French.'^ 
The taste of this spurious brandy is different from 
that of the genuine article, having a somewhat 
metallic taste, and on adding a little per-sulphate 
of iron, the color does not change, as it does when 
pure, to a black, inky color. 

Copper is often found in brandy, owing to the 
vessels in which it was distilled being made of that 
metal. It is easy enough to detect this by the fol- 
lowing process: "Take some of the brandy and 
pour into a glass; then take a smooth, bright piece 
of iron of any kind and immerse into it, and im- 
mediately a copper color will be observed on the 
iron, if there is any copper present. 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 65 

Perhaps one of the worst frauds practised in 
brandy, as regards its influence on the human sys- 
tem, is the acetate of lead, which is added to the 
brandy for the purpose of clarifying it. Its pre- 
sence can be detected by passing a stream of sul- 
phuretted hydrogen gas through it, when immedi- 
ately a black precipitate of the sulphuret of lead 
is the result. 

Grains of Paradise and Guinea pepper are put 
into weak brandy to give it the taste of a strong 
brandy. The flavor which characterizes the 
French brandy^ and which is owing to a small por- 
tion of a peculiar essential oil contained in it, is 
imitated by distilling British molasses spirit over 
wine lees; but this spirit, prior to being distilled 
over wine lees, is previously deprived in part of 
its peculiar disagreeable flavor by rectification 
over fresh-burnt charcoal and quicklime. 

Oak sawdust and spirituous tincture of raisin- 
stones are likewise used to impart to brandy a ripe 
taste, resembling brandy long kept in oaken ves- 
sels, and a somewhat oily consistence, so as to form 
a durable froth at its surface, when strongly agi- 
tated in a vial. Many other frauds could be enu- 
merated, but I think it useless, as the means of 
detecting them could not be appreciated by those 
unacquainted with the delicate operations in chem- 
istry. 

3. Gin. 

Of this much could be said, but it would be of 
more interest to the distillers than any one else, 
and as they generally "know how to manage to a 

6* 



66 DETECTION OF FKAUD AND 

good advantage," it will not be necessary for me 
to instruct them further on the subject. 

4. Porter. 

All that relates to the adulterations in porter, 
can be found under the head of " Beer," the two 
being prepared in nearly the same manner. 

5. Rum. 

There are many foreign substances put into rum, 
such as oak sawdust, spirituous tincture of raisin- 
stones, &c., to give it the ripe taste of old rum, 
but they are difficult to detect by simple means. 

6. Wines. 

There are few of those commodities which are 
the objects of commerce that are adulterated to a 
greater extent than wine. Every person that is 
conversant with the subject is aware that wine is 
very inferior in this country when compared with 
the wine in France and some other countries. 

The adulterations of wine consist in part of the 
following: — 

Alum is added to young and meagre red wines 
for the purpose of brightening their color. Brazil 
wood, or the husks of elder-berries are employed to 
impart a deep, rich, purple tint to red port of a 
pale faint color ; gypsum is used to render cloudy 
white wines transparent ; additional astringency is 
imparted to immature red wines by means of oak- 
wood sawdust and the husks of filberts ; a mix- 
ture of spoiled foreign and home-made wines is 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 67 

converted into the wretched compound frequently 
sold by the name of ^^ genuine old Port.'' 

Many expedients are resorted to for the purpose 
of communicating particular flavors to insipid 
wines. Thus a peculiar flavor is produced by 
bitter almonds ; factitious port wine is flavored 
with a tincture drawn from the seed of raisins ; 
and the ingredients employed to form the bouquet 
of high-flavored wines, are sweet-briar, orris-root, 
cherry laurel water, and elder-flowers. 

The flavoring ingredients used by manufacturers, 
may all be purchased by those dealers in wine who 
are initiated in the mysteries of the trade; and 
even a small receipt book for preparing them, and 
the whole mystery of managing all sorts of wines, 
is kept for sale amongst them. 

There are persons in most large cities that are 
daily employed in the transmutation of liquors, 
and by the power of drugs and incantations, can 
raise in our streets the choicest products of the 
hills and valleys of France. They can squeeze 
Bordeaux out of the sloe, and draw^ champagne 
from an apple. 

The particular and separate department in 
this factitious wine trade, called crusting^ consists 
in lining the interior surface of empty wine bottles 
in part, with a red crust of a super-tartrate of 
potash, by sufi'ering a saturated hot solution of 
this salt, colored red with a decoction of Brazil 
wood, to crystallize within them ; and after this 
simulation of maturity is perfected, they are filled 
with the compound called port wine. Other arti- 
sans are regularly employed in staining the lower 
extremities of bottle corks with a fine red color, to 



68 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

appear, on being drawn, as if they had been long 
in contact with the wine. 

The preparation of an astringent extract, to 
produce from spoiled home-made wine a genuine 
old port, by mere admixture; or impart to weak 
wine a rough, austere taste, a fine color and a 
peculiar flavor, forms one branch of the business 
of particular wine-dealers ; while the mellowing 
and restoring of spoiled white wines is the oc- 
cupation of men who are called '^refiners of 
wine.''' 

I have stated that a crystalline crust is formed 
on the interior surface of bottles, for the purpose 
of misleading the untaught into a belief that the 
wine contained in them is of a certain age. A 
corresponding operation is performed on the wood- 
en cask ; the whole interior of which is stained 
artificially with a crystalline crust of super-tartrate 
of potash, artfully afl^xed in a manner precisely 
similar to that before stated. 

Thus the wine merchant, after bottling off" a pipe 
of wine, is enabled to impose on the understanding 
of his customers, by taking to pieces the cask, 
and exhibiting the beautiful dark-colored and fine 
crystalline crust, as an indubitable proof of the 
age of the wine ; a practice by no means uncom- 
mon to flatter the vanity of those who pride them- 
selves in their acute discrimination of wines. 

These, with many other sophistications, which 
have long been practised with impunity, are con- 
sidered as legitimate by those who pride themselves 
for their skill in the art of managing, or according 
to the familiar phrase, '''doctoring wines.'' They 
allege, in exculpation of them, that though decep- 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 69 

tive they are harmless ; but if we could admit this 
as a palliation, yet they form only one department 
of an art which includes other processes of a ten- 
dency absolutely criminal. 

Several well-authenticated facts have convinced 
me that the adulteration of wine with substances 
deleterious to health, is practised oftener than is, 
perhaps, suspected; and it would be easy to give 
some instances of very serious effects having arisen 
from wines contaminated with poisonous sub- 
stances. One of the most dangerous adultera- 
tions of wine is by some preparation of lead, 
which possesses the property of stopping the pro- 
gress of acescence of wine, and also of rendering 
white wines, when muddy, transparent. The wine 
merchant will pretend as an excuse, that this is the 
only process known of rapidly recovering ropy 
wines. 

He persuades himself that such a small quantity 
of lead employed for that purpose is perfectly 
harmless, and that not an atom of lead remains in 
the wine. Chemical analysis proves the contrary; 
and the practice of clarifying spoiled white wines 
by means of lead, must be pronounced as unpar- 
donable. 

Lead, in whatever form it be taken into the sto- 
mach, occasions, as is now too well known, terrible 
diseases; and wine, adulterated with the minutest 
quantity of it will, sooner or later, undermine the 
general health. The merchant or dealer who 
practises this dangerous cheat, adds the crime of 
murder to that of fraud, and deliberately scatters 
the poison amongst those consumers who contribute 
to his emolument. 



70 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

If to debase the current coin of the country be 
denounced as a criminal offence, what punishment 
should be awarded to those who convert into a 
poison a liquid used for holy purposes, that which 
of all others is the most sacred thing on earth. 
Oh ! will the day ever come when the God of na- 
ture will in vengeance look down on this wholesale 
murder? It seems that no law of man is made to 
prevent it. 

Wine may become accidentally impregnated with 
lead. It is well known that bottles in which wine 
has been kept, are usually cleaned by means of 
shot, which, by their rolling motion, detach the 
super-tartrate of potash from the sides of the bot- 
tle. This practice, which is so often pursued by 
wine merchants, may give rise to serious conse- 
quences by the shot accidentally becoming wedged 
in the bottom of the bottle. 

Carbonate of soda, and also carbonate of lime 
and potassa, are sometimes made use of to destroy 
the acidity of sour wines. Brandy is also added 
to poor wine to prevent decomposition, and give it 
strength. These constitute most of the frauds 
practised in fabricating wine. 

Test for Lead. — Pour into a glass two ounces of 
wine and pass through it some sulphuretted hydro- 
gen gas, as directed previously in this work, when 
speaking of cheese, and the dark brown or black 
color will be seen. 

Test for Alum. — Take one ounce of the wine 
and dilute with an equal bulk of water, rain water 
or distilled water, if it can be had. Let fall into 
it, gradually, a solution of the muriate of barytes. 
If a copious white precipitate ensues, which does 



PKOTECTION OF HEALTH. 71 

not disappear by the addition of pure nitric acid, 
the presence of alum is proved. Carbonate of lime 
may be detected by evaporating two ounces of the 
wine to one-eighth of its volume, then adding to 
the remaining wine twice its volume of alcohol. 
The tartrate and sulphate of lime are precipitated, 
and the acetate of lime dissolved. The solution 
is then strained, and carefully evaporated to dry- 
ness. 

The strained solution in water gives a precipi- 
tate, very abundant with oxalate of ammonia, and 
gives out the smell of vinegar, when decomposed 
by oil of vitriol or sulphuric acid. 

Wine colored w^ith the juice of bilberries, or 
elder-berries, or Campeachy wood, produces with 
acetate of lead a deep blue precipitate ; and Bra- 
zil wood, red sanders, and " the red best," produce 
a color which is precipitated red by acetate of 
lead. Wine colored by the " beet root'' is also 
rendered colorless by lime-water; but the weakest 
acid brings it back. 

7. Whiskey. 

Though there are many adulterations in this 
article, they are of such a nature that it would be 
useless to dwell on them, as I could not give as 
simple tests as would be understood by any but 
chemists. Suffice it to say, that they are not so 
dangerous in their action on the system as many 
others put into spirituous liquors. 



CLASS III. 

CONFECTIONERY, SPICES, &c. 

1. Preserves. — 2. Pepper (black). — 3. Pepper (white).-— 
4. Candies. — 5. Mustard.— 6. Nutmeg. — 7. Ice-Cream. 
—8. Sweet Oil. 

1. Preserves. 

In the preparation of sugar-plums, and some 
other kinds of confectionery, especially those sweet- 
meats of inferior quality, frequently exposed to 
sale in the open streets, for the allurement of 
children, the grossest abuses are committed. The 
article called sugar-pease, is chiefly composed of a 
mixture of sugar, starch, and a sort of clay; and 
the red sugar drops are usually colored with the 
inferior kinds of vermilion. The pigment is gen- 
erally adulterated with red lead. 

Other kinds of sweetmeats are also rendered 
poisonous by being colored with preparations of 
copper, in proof of which I here give the statement 
of a gentleman on that point. He says : — 

" Some time ago, while residing near the house 
of a confectioner, I noticed the coloring of the 
green fancy sweetmeats, being done by dissolving 
sap-green in brandy. Now, sap-green itself, as 
prepared from the juice of the buckthorn berries, 



PROTECTION OP HEALTH. 73 

is no doubt a harmless substance, but the manu- 
facturers of this color, have for many years past 
produced various tints, some extremely bright, 
which there can be no doubt are effected by adding 
preparations of copper. 

"The practice of coloring these articles of con- 
fectionery should, therefore, be banished; the pro- 
prietors of which may not be aware of the delete- 
rious quality of the substances employed by 
them." 

Some preserves, such as citrons, hop-tops, plums, 
angelica roots, &c., usually sold in round chip 
boxes, are frequently impregnated with copper. 

Tests. — The adulteration of comfits by means of 
clay, may be detected by simply dissolving the 
comfits in a large quantity of boiling water. The 
clay, after suffering the mixture to stand undis- 
turbed for a few days, will fall to the bottom of the 
vessel ; and on decanting the clear fluid, and suf- 
fering the sediment to become dry gradually, it 
may be obtained in a separate state. 

If the adulteration has been effected by means 
of clay, the obtained precipitate, on exposure to a 
red heat in the bowl of a common tobacco pipe, 
acquires a brick hardness. 

The presence of copper may be detected by 
pouring over the preserves some liquid ammonia 
(spirits hartshorn), which speedily gives to the 
mass a blue color if the metal is present. The 
presence of lead is rendered obvious by water im- 
pregnated with sulphuretted hydrogen, acidulated 
with muriatic acid (see Article 3, Class I.), which 
assumes a dark brown or black color, so character- 
istic of the presence of lead. 
7 



74 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 



2. Pepper (black). 

This is the fruit of a shrubby, creeping plant, 
■which grows wild in the West Indies, and is culti- 
vated, with much advantage, for the sake of its 
berries, in Java and Malabar. The berries are 
gathered before they are ripe, and are dried in the 
sun. They thus become black and wrinkled on 
the surface. That factitious peppercorns are 
mixed with genuine pepper, there can be do doubt. 
Such an adulteration may prove, in many instances 
of household economy, exceedingly vexatious and 
prejudicial to those who ignorantly make use of 
the spurious article. The spurious pepper is made 
up of oil cakes, common clay, and portions of Cay- 
enne pepper, formed into a mass and granulated, 
by first being pressed through a sieve and then 
rolled in a cask. The mode of detecting the fraud 
is easy. It is only necessary to throw a sample of 
the suspected pepper into a bowl of water; the ar- 
tificial peppercorns fall to powder, whilst the true 
pepper remains whole. 

Ground pepper is very often adulterated by add- 
ing to a portion of genuine pepper, a quantity of 
pepper dust, or the sweepings from the pepper 
warehouses, mixed with a small quantity of Cay- 
enne pepper. Never buy pepper ground. 

3. Pepper (white). 

Ordinary white pepper is factitious, being pre- 
pared from the black pepper in the following man- 
ner : The pepper is first steeped in sea-water and 
some other fluids, and then exposed to the heat of 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 75 

the sun for several days, till the rind or outer bark 
loosens; it is then taken out of the steep, and, when 
dry, it is rubbed with the hand till the rind falls off. 

The luJiite fruit is then dried, and the remains 
of the rind blown away like chaff. A great deal 
of the peculiar flavor and pungent hot taste of the 
pepper is taken off by this process. White pepper 
is always inferior in flavor and quality to the black 
pepper. 

However, there is a sort of native white pepper, 
produced on a species of the pepper plant which is 
much better than the factitious, and, indeed, little 
inferior to the common black pepper, but *' get- 
ting it is the thing.'' Where you get one pound 
of the genuine article, you get one hundred of the 
spurious. 

It is easy to tell the difference between the two ; 
the genuine white pepper has the outer rind on, 
whereas the spurious has not. 

4. Candies. 

I doubt not but there are many who have never 
once thought that candies were adulterated, or that 
they contained substances positively obnoxious to 
health. Nevertheless, such is the case. Every 
mother tries to make a "bug-bear" out of some- 
thing, to keep her children from using candies, 
knowing that it is quite injurious to their health, 
still, she does not know why it is that it makes 
their teeth decay, their skin pale, and hoiuels cos- 
tive. It is not the sugar or the sweetness that 
does it, for the negroes who live on sugar planta- 
tions and use large quantities of sugar have re- 



76 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

markablj sound teeth and robust health. What 
then must we attribute it to? To the poiso7ious 
substances used in manufacturing^ or in coloring 
candy ^ which will now be spoken of in detail. 

Every confectioner should know, and most of them 
do know, that such things as they use in coloring can- 
dies are 'poisonous. In passing a candy shop, you 
will see candies made up in the most beautiful, 
fancy style, tinted with beautiful colors. All, or 
nearly all of these beautiful colors are given them 
by some preparation of lead or copper, and some- 
times arsenic. The yellow color is imparted by 
chrome-yellow, a preparation containing lead and 
gamboge — a drastic purgative. The green color is 
given by Scheele's green, which contains arsenic 
and copper ; the red color by vermilion, an ar- 
ticle which is adulterated with lead. 

To detect the lead, take a piece of the suspected 
candy, dissolve in water, and pass through it sul- 
plmretted hydrogen, as previously directed, and if 
the lead is present, the liquid will quickly be turn- 
ed of a darh hroivn or hlaclc color. The presence 
of copper can be detected by pouring on the can- 
dies of a green color, liquid ammonia, which 
speedily gives to it a blue color. If gamboge is 
present, you will see a thick mucilage when the 
candy is dissolved, of a yellow color. To tell if 
arsenic is present, throw some of the green-colored 
candy on hot coals, and immediately by holding it 
near your nose, you can smell a garlic odor, so 
characteristic of the presence of this poison. 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 77 



5. Mustard. 

It is a rare thing to meet with genuine mustard, 
in powder or in paste ready for use. The article 
sold as pure mustard, is usually a mixture of mus- 
tard and common wheaten flour, with a portion of 
Cayenne pepper, to make it strong: it requiring 
but little to make it as strong as common mustard. 

Turmeric has been added to mustard to give it 
a fine yellow color, when a little too much flour 
has been put in. The presence of this, though in 
small quantity, can be detected by adding to the 
so-called mustard a few drops of a solution of pot- 
ash or any other alkali, which changes the bright 
yellow color to a brown or deep orange tint. 

There is a kind of fine mustard sold in pots, 
ready mixed for use ; the following is about the 
way it is made : They take Cayenne pepper, bay 
salt, mustard flour, wheaten flour, and then make 
into a stiff paste. Although these adulterations 
do not seem deleterious, it is, nevertheless, a 
roguish practice, as the venders of it obtain the 
same price for a mean mixed-up stuff* as for good 
mustard. There are substances, though, that are 
mixed with mustard that are very injurious; I re- 
fer to yellow ochre, to detect which put some of 
the suspected mustard in a small iron vessel, put 
on the fire and let remain until you see the mus- 
tard smoking and burning away; if there is any 
residue left, it is ochre. This test can be applied 
very easily with a little care. 

7* 



78 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 



6. Nutmegs. 

I suppose it is scarcely necessary to say much 
on the subject of nutmegs being adulterated, as 
every one has heard that they are manufactured 
in some of the New England States, and some 
others, for aught I know, of wood, and sold very 
cheap. Without commenting on this "Yankee 
trick," I will speak of some others equally as bad. 

The following is a good rule to follow in pur- 
chasing nutmegs : They should be dense and have 
a heavy feel ; not worm eaten, or with holes in 
them, as these holes may have been made by a 
"two-legged worm," for the purpose of extracting 
the oil. When, from accident, worms do eat holes 
in them, some persons are smart enough to stop 
them, and make you believe — if you haven't read 
this book — that they are sound and good. 

But now let me tell you, that you must not buy 
them if they feel light and chaffy; it matters not 
how cheap they are offered, they are dear at any 
price, and you had as well get a little sawdust 
and use it, as those worm-eaten nutmegs, or those 
from which the oil has been taken ; that property 
which gives them their particularly agreeable flavor. 

7. Ice-Cream. 

I have merely spoken of this article to convey 
an idea to the unthinking of what they are eating 
when they are partaking of this great delicacy. 

As regards how it is made, most persons are 
familiar with the process, and it is, therefore, unne- 
cessary for mc to give it here. The ice-cream is 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH, 79 

very often made in contact with leaden vessels. 
The article called ice-cream is often, yes, I may 
saj generally, made up of the most abominable, 
sickening stuff imaginable. The cream from 
-which it is made is often adulterated with rice 
powder or arrowroot. The arrowroot powder is 
mixed up with a small quantity of cold skimmed 
milk into a perfect, smooth, uniform mixture; 
more milk is then added, and the whole boiled for 
a few minutes, to effect the solution of arrowroot ; 
this compound, when perfectly cold, is mixed up 
with a little genuine diseased cotvs' cream. 

The worst has not yet been told. It will be re- 
collected that I said, while speaking of milk, that 
sheeps' brains, and the brains of many other ani- 
mals, were mixed up with warm water and milk, 
and sold as ''rich milk.'' Now, the article cream 
is much worse adulterated with brains, as their 
color corresponds better with cream than milk. 
Ah, my young man, little have you thought when 
you invited a female friend — some amiable, lovely, 
and beautiful young lady, to take some ice-cream 
with you, that she, as well as yourself, was 
taking such a sickening, such a filthy compound. 

The essence of lemon, vanilla, &c., with the cold- 
ness of the cream, is well calculated to deceive the 
taste, though the brains, of which the cream was 
made, were in a state of partial decomposition. 

To ascertain if the ice-cream contains arrowroot, 
take two tablespoonfuls of the cream put into a 
vessel and let it melt. Then add ten or fifteen 
drops of the tincture of iodine, and the mixture 
will become of a purple color. The presence of 
the brains can only be detected by letting a por- 



80 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

tion of the cream stand in a warm place for about 
thirty-six hours, when the peculiar odor of decom- 
posing animal matter will be observed. The lead, 
if any is present, from being in contact with leaden 
vessels, may be detected by allowing the ice 
cream to melt, and passing through it sulphuret- 
ted hydrogen, when the peculiar dark brown color 
will be noticed. What do you think of eating ice- 
cream now ? As for me, I am not fond of frozen 
arrowroot and sheeps' brains, even if they are 
mixed with essences. 

8. Sweet Oil. 

This is often adulterated with the cheaper oils, 
such for instance as poppy oil, it being much lower 
priced than true olive oil. It is said that the 
taste is but little changed by the addition of the 
poppy oil. Sweet oil is sometimes contaminated 
with lead, because the fruit which yields the oil is 
submitted to the action of the press between leaden 
plates; and it is a practice (particularly in Spain) 
to suffer the oil to become clear in leaden cisterns, 
before it is brought to market for sale. 

Pure sweet oil should have a pale yellow color, 
somewhat inclining to green, a bland taste, and 
without smell. It is frequently met with in a 
rancid state. 

Test for the presence of Poppi/ Oil. — Take one 
ounce of the oil, and pour into a two-ounce vial; 
shake well for a few minutes and then let it stand, 
and if there is any poppy oil present you will see 
little air-bubbles remaining in the oil ; pure olive 
oil soon regains its smoothness on the surface if 
allowed to remain still. 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 81 

The lead may be detected thus: Take one ounce 
of the oil and three or four ounces of water, 
through which sulphuretted hydrogen has been 
passed. Pour the oil and the water into a small 
bottle and shake them for five minutes ; if lead is 
present, the liquid will become of a dark brown or 
black color. 

In places where large quantities of this oil are 
kept, they frequently put it into leaden cisterns to 
prevent, as they say, its becoming rancid ; and 
even smaller dealers for a similar purpose put into 
the oil a pewter plate. This is quite reprehensi- 
ble, as the oil acts on the lead, producing a condi- 
tion hereafter to be spoken of. 



CLASS IV. 

MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES. 

1. Alum. — 2. Cider. — 3. Gunpowder. — 4. Indigo. — 5. 
Sealing-wax. — 6. Soaps. — 7. Starch. — 8. Soda Water. — 
9. Vinegar. — 10. Water. — 11. Beeswax. 

1. Alum. 

As this is made use of to a considerable extent, 
it may not be amiss to say a few words concerning 
it. A good article of alum should be colorless, 
and dissolve without much agitation in water. 
Sometimes alum contains sulphate of iron, to de- 
tect which, dissolve some of the alum in water, and 
add a small portion of the solution of potash. If 
iron is present, the precipitate formed will not be 
dissolved by an excess of the potash, and it will 
be of a red brown color, or it will become so in a 
short time by leaving it in the open air. 

2. Cider. 

This ancient beverage is made from the differ- 
ent kinds of apples, which, after long keeping, is 
very liable to become acid and is converted into 
vinegar, and is then used for various purposes in 
the arts, &c. It is often rendered actively poison- 
ous, and many, many are the instances in which it 
has destroyed life in a few hours. 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 83 

As a proof of cider being poisonous, I will give 
the history of a case as related by a respectable 
physician: "Some cider which had been made in 
a gentleman's family being thought too sour, was 
boiled with honey in a brewing vessel. All those 
that drank of the cider were seized with a severe 
colic. One of the servants died very soon in con- 
vulsions; several others were cruelly tortured a 
long time. The gentleman of the family in parti- 
cular, though he had all the assistance which art 
could give him, never recovered his health, but 
died miserably affected, after having almost three 
years languished under a most tedious and incura- 
ble malady. On examination, the rim of the brew- 
ing vessel was found to be capped with lead.'' 

In this case it was a mere accident, but should 
serve to put persons on their guard in preparing 
cider for the table. Many narcotic or stupefying 
substances are added to cider for the purpose of 
imparting a rich color to it, and to make believe 
it is strong. Among these may be mentioned the 
poppy, hops, &c., and to give a bright color, coch- 
ineal, elder-berries, and many other coloring sub- 
stances. Strong alcoholic liquors are also added 
to cider "^o make drunk come.'' 'When cider be- 
comes a little too acid, lime and chalk are put in 
to correct it. 

To tell if cider contains brandy or whiskey, ex-" 
amine it closely, and you can tell it by the partic- 
ular odor of each. Cider should not have a strong 
taste, but be a little acid. To detect lime or chalk, 
take about half a wineglassful of the cider and add 
to it a small quantity of oxalate of ammonia ; if 



84 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

they are present, a copious precipitate will fall to 
the bottom. 

To detect lead, which is often put in cider inten- 
tionally, to correct an unpleasant taste, take an 
ordinary glass tumbler, fill it one-third full of 
cider, and dilute this with an equal quantity of 
pure water : pass the sulphuretted hydrogen 
through it, and the liquor will become of a dark 
brown or black color. The cider must previously 
be acidulated with a little muriatic acid. 

3. Gunpowder. 

This being an article of considerable importance, 
any fraud practised in its manufacture, should be 
known. It is sometimes adulterated with common 
black sand, to detect which, put some powder on 
a smooth plank and put fire to it; if there is any 
sand it will be left on the smooth plank or board. 
Sometimes, powder is what is called dusty. Pass 
your hand, which must be dry, into a vessel con- 
taining some powder, and if it is blackened, the 
powder is dusty and not good, as it will not blacken 
the hand if well grained. 

4. Indigo. 

Indigo is met with at various prices and in 
varied degrees of purity — scarcely any being met 
with entirely pure. I recollect to have seen spe- 
cimens of indigo that, when put to the test, con- 
tained twenty per cent, of soft paper, lint, &c. 

Nothing is easier than to detect this fraud. 
Take a small lump of the indigo, and with a sharp 
knife trim off* into a fine powder ; pour on it some 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 85 

lime-water, and rub between your fingers for a 
short time, the paper or lint will soon roll up into 
a wad. This, good indigo will not do, and you can 
further test it by washing the wad so obtained in a 
little water, and then drying it, when you can see the 
texture of the lint or paper. There are some pro- 
cesses given by authors for telling the comparative 
w^orth of indigo, but I do not think those who are 
unaccustomed to making experiments in chemistry 
could perform them. Should any one wish to 
prosecute the inquiry further, I refer them to 
"lire's Dictionary of Arts," &c. 

5. Sealing-wax. 

Besides every other fraud, sealing-wax has also 
been adulterated. As many persons may not know 
of what sealing-wax is composed, or how it is made, 
I will say a few words concerning it, which I hope 
will not be without interest. 

Good sealing-wax is made of pure shell-lac, four 
parts, one and a half of Venice turpentine, and 
lampblack or vermilion sufficient to give the 
necessary color. It is then run into the desired 
shape. 

Instead of being thus made, it is often made of 
rosin, in place of sh^U-lac, red lead for vermilion, 
and common turpentine for the true Venice. Seal- 
ing-wax thus made is almost worthless. When 
you attempt to seal a letter or other matter, the 
wax runs off before taking fire ; when it does this, 
you may know what is the cause — you have been 
cheated, in the way just mentioned. 
8 



86 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 



6. Soaps. 

Is there any who would ask the question, "Why 
do you speak of soap ? how can it be adulter- 
ated?'' If so, let me say to such that I have the 
best of reasons; as I have, on different occasions, 
had my face and hands nearly eat up with what 
is sold for fine soap, and, doubtless, many of you 
have fared no better. 

As regards how soap can be adulterated, it can 
be done and is done in many ways by the vicious 
and unprincipled, who make it their daily business. 
A fraud practised in some of the finer soaps is to 
put into it lime and white clay. The lime acts 
very injuriously on the delicate skin, as all must 
admit. 

The rosin soap has frequently a disagreeable 
smell. This is owing to oleaginous matters being 
used in making it that are unfit for the purpose. 
An undue quantity of rosin is also sometimes put 
in the soap, thus leaving the potash in a condition 
possessing great corrosive powers, which, coming 
in contact with the skin, makes it crack and bleed, 
and if continued will produce sores. 

To detect the lime and clay : Take half an ounce 
of the soap and three ounces of alcohol. Put these 
in a bottle or flask, and apply a gentle heat until 
the soap is dissolved. If any lime or clay is pre- 
sent it will remain undissolved. 

Persons are often cheated in buying the com- 
mon bar soap, as it is called, as it contains quite a 
percentage of water. Every one may convince 
themselves of this fact by purchasing a bar of the 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 87 

soap that looks straight, moist, and square, and put 
it in -a dry place for a few days only, when on ex- 
amination it will be found much less in size, wrink- 
led, and bent. This is owing to the loss of the 
water it contains when bought. 

7. Starch. 

The principal adulteration of this article is with 
chalk and gypsum, to detect w^hich, put some of 
the suspected starch on a hot iron of any kind, 
and burn it; if any chalk or gypsum is present, it 
will be left. 

Starch often contains an undue amount of moist- 
ure, also, which should be noticed in purchasing it. 

8. Soda- Water. 

Some of my readers are ready, I fear, to differ with 
me, almost before saying anything on the subject 
of soda-water; for, say they, this is a beverage 
"with which we could not dispense in the heat of 
summer. 

Well, you can make up your mind to dispense 
"with 'poisonous soda-ivater^ or dispense with 
health. But one will say, why do we not see the 
poisonous effects of the soda-water that you speak 
of? I reply, that we do see the effects of this 
poison, daily. I do not deny but what soda-water, 
in a state of purity, is pleasant, safe, and benefi- 
cial; but when it is rendered poisonous by copper 
and lead, I cannot conceive that it is safe to use 
it on any occasion. Although we may not see the 
effects of this poison in soda-water as soon as it 
has been taken, yet it has its day, like all other 



88 DETECTION OE FRAUD AND 

evils. How often is it the case, though, that we 
hear of persons being taken ill suddenly, and send- 
ing for their physician, and on inquiry being made, 
the patient would say, "I felt very well until I 
stopped at a drinking establishment and took a 
glass of soda-water, and I have been feeling worse 
and worse ever since." 

There is scarcely an individual but can call such 
cases to mind. In other instances, the eifect is 
not so sudden or apparent ; but, nevertheless, sure, 
as the following case will elucidate: "A gentle- 
man was in the habit of stopping every day at a 
soda-fount to take a glass of soda-water. He con- 
tinued to do so for two or three weeks, at the end 
of which time he was seized with a violent attack 
of lead colic. He remained several days before he 
recovered, in a dangerous condition. When he 
got well, he again partook of the soda-water, and 
in a short time a second attack was the result. 
After recovering the second time he feared the 
soda-water had caused his sickness, and quit the 
use of it, and he had no other attack.'' 

I think the proof in this case conclusive, that 
there was lead in the soda-water. Some may wish 
to know how lead gets into soda-water; it is thus: the 
apparatus for preparing the soda-water is gene 
rally made of lead, and the carbonic acid acting on 
the lead dissolves a portion of it. I have, myself, 
seen the tubes of soda-founts mended with lead, by 
first melting it and pouring it on the crack in the 
tube. 

In the construction of some of the soda-water 
apparatuses, copper is also used, thus giving two op- 
portunities to be poisoned instead of one, for it is 
easy to conceive what will be the result when soda- 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 89 

water is left in contact with copper for some length 
of time. 

There is also another fraud practised in soda- 
water. I refer to what is called '"^bottled soda- 
water^'^' or '''mmeral-water ;'' this is made by put- 
ting a few drops of sulphuric acid (oil of vitriol) to 
a solution of carbonate of soda, and immediately 
corking the bottle. This you will see for sale in 
nearly all drinking establishments. 

To detect the lead, make use of the same process 
I have so often already given in the course of the 
work. The copper may be detected by adding to 
the soda-water some liquid ammonia, when it will 
become of a blue color if copper is present. To 
prove that sulphuric acid is present in the mineral- 
water, take one ounce of the liquid, and add to it 
chloride of barium, until precipitation ceases : then 
add to the precipitate some diluted nitric acid ; and 
unless the precipitate is all dissolved, you can safely 
say that sulphuric acid is present. 

The sulphuric acid is very injurious to the en- 
amel of the teeth, and persons need not be sur- 
prised at any time, that their teeth break off, or 
decay, if they are in the habit of using the article 
just spoken of. 

9. Vinegar. 

As vinegar is an article of every day use in every 
family, the consumption of it is very great ; and 
thus, persons void of principle are led to adulterate 
it. 

The fraud generally practised in making vine- 
gar, is to mix with it some strong acid, such as the 

8* 



90 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

sulphuric acid (oil of vitriol), nitric acid (aqua- 
fortis), muriatic acid (a very corrosive liquid), 
and oxalic acid (a deadly poison). To detect sul- 
phuric acid, take an ounce or two of the vinegar, 
and add to it some solution of the acetate of bary- 
tes; if sulphuric acid is present, a white precipitate 
is formed, which does not dissolve in nitric acid. 
For detecting muriatic acid, take a wineglassful of 
the vinegar, and add to it some solution of the 
nitrate of silver; if it produces an abundant pre- 
cipitate, you may infer that muriatic acid has been 
added to the vinegar. 

The nitric acid can be detected as follows : 
Take a small quantity of the vinegar, and put it 
into a vessel that will bear the application of heat ; 
cut or scrape a common goosequill and put into 
it; apply heat, and if the pieces of quill are stained 
yellow, nitric acid is present. 

To detect oxalic acid, take of the vinegar, two 
parts; ammonia, one part; put these together in a 
vessel, and add some lime-water. If there is any 
oxalic acid present, there will be a copious preci- 
pitate of the oxalate of lime. Sometimes vegetable 
substances of an acrid character are added to vine- 
gar to make it appear strong. These cannot be 
detected by any chemical test ; but, by close observ- 
ation you can judge of their presence by the vine- 
gar possessing a strong biting taste, instead of an 
acid taste. It is scarcely necessary to state that 
vinegar thus adulterated must be highly injurious 
to health. The daily use of vinegar containing 
these acids, will soon ruin the finest teeth, and 
eventually produce bad breath, inflammation of the 
stomach, ulcerated sore-throat, dyspepsia, and a 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 91 

long train of evils, which, if the cause is not under- 
stood, will lead to death. 

10. Water. 

As little as it may be thought of, it is neverthe- 
less true, that water, perfectly pure, is scarcely ever 
met with in nature. Every one is convinced that 
the waters which issue from the recesses of the 
earth, from springs, wells, rivers, and lakes, often 
differ materially from each other. It is obvious 
that the health and comfort of families, and the 
conveniences of domestic life, are materially affected 
by the supply of good and wholesome water. Hence, 
a knowledge of the quality and salubrity of the dif- 
ferent kinds of waters employed in the comnon con- 
cerns of life, on account of the abundant daily use 
we make of them in the preparation of food, is un- 
doubtedly an object of great importance, and de- 
mands the attention of all. 

Foreign matters which water may contain, pro- 
duce a greater effect on the human system than 
one at first sight would imagine. None will deny 
that such waters as are hard^ or loaded with earthy 
matter, have a decided effect upon some important 
functions of the human body. The distressing 
symptoms under which those persons labor who 
are afflicted with what is commonly called gravel 
complaints, are greatly increased by some waters, 
containing saline and earthy substances. 

Many other diseases might be named that are 
aggravated by hard waters. It is an object of no 
less importance, also, that water should be soft 
when employed in some of the arts and manufac- 



92 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

tnres. Soft water is preferable to hard, in the 
process of brewing, for instance. It is known to 
tliose engaged in brewing, that the largest quantity 
of extractive matter of the malt is obtained in the 
least possible time, and at the least expense, by 
means of soft water. We find, also, that, in the 
art of dyeing, hard water not only opposes the 
solution of several dyestufFs ; but, it alters the 
natural tints of some delicate colors; whilst in 
others, it precipitates the earthy and saline mat- 
ters with which it is impregnated into the delicate 
fibres of the cloth, and thus impedes the softness 
and brilliancy of the dye. 

In bleaching, waters cannot be used that are 
impregnated with earthy salts ; and a minute quan- 
tity of iron in the water, imparts to the cloth a 
yellowish hue. Many other things of importance 
concerning the purity of water could be mentioned, 
but the foregoing is thought sufficient. 

The best rule concerning the purity of water for 
domestic purposes is its softness. This quality is 
at once obvious by the touch, if we only wash our 
hands in it with soap. Good water should be beau- 
tifully transparent; the slightest opacity or cloudi- 
ness indicating extraneous matter. The best plan 
of judging of the perfect transparency of water, is 
to put a quantity of it into a deep glass vessel, the 
larger the better, so that you can look down per- 
pendicularly into a considerable mass of the fluid ; 
we may then readily discover the slightest degree 
of muddiness much better than if the water be 
viewed through the glass placed between the eye 
and the light. It should be colorless, perfectly so, 
without smell or taste, soft and agreeable. In 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 93 

pouring it from one vessel into another, it should 
send out air-bubbles. It is to the presence of com- 
mon air and carbonic acid, that common water 
owes its taste, and many of the good effects which 
it produces on animals and vegetables. 

Spring water, which contains more air, has a more 
lively taste than river water. Hard waters may, 
in general, be cured in part by dropping into them 
a solution of subcarbonate of potash ; or, if the 
hardness be owing only to the presence of super- 
carbonate of lime, mere boiling will greatly remedy 
the defect; part of the carbonic acid flies off, and a 
neutral carbonate of lime falls down to the bottom ; 
it may then be used for washing, as it will scarcely 
curdle soap. 

If water is used for washing that comes from a 
spring, it is advantageous to leave it for some time 
exposed to the open air in a reservoir, or large ves- 
sel, having an extensive surface. 

A portion of the carbonic acid thus becomes dis- 
sipated, and part of the carbonate of lime falls to 
the bottom. It is a common belief that the more 
any spring is drawn from, the softer the water be- 
comes. Rain water, collected with due care as it 
descends from the clouds, and at a distance from 
large towns, or any other object capable of impreg- 
nating the atmosphere with foreign matters, ap- 
proaches nearer to a state of purity than perhaps 
any other natural water. But, collected in this 
way even, it invariably contains a portion of com- 
mon air, and carbonic acid gas. 

Rain water thus procured, is admirably adapted 
for many culinary purposes, and various pro- 
cesses in manufactures and the arts. Spring 



94 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

water is what is generally termed hard water, and 
is not so applicable for most purposes as the rain 
water. River water, or any running stream ex- 
posed to the open air, is, with the exception of par- 
ticles of alluvial soil in it, more pure than spring 
water. It is purest when it runs over a gravelly 
or rocky bed, and when its course is swift. Snow 
water is also, generally, purer than ordinary spring 
water, and answers for many purposes where the 
greatest purity is not requisite. 

11. Beeswax. 

Many foreign substances are put into wax, which 
should be known to those who deal in, or use it, 
and is a matter of no little importance in a com- 
mercial point of view. The cheats mostly practised 
are mixing with it while in a melted state, resin, po- 
tato-starch, pea-meal, tallow, dirt, and sometimes 
a mixture composed of litharge and oil. To detect 
pea-meal and dirt, break a cake of the wax, and if 
it should be very brittle, and of a pale gray color, 
you may at once infer that they are present. 
Should this not prove satisfactory, melt some of 
the wax and strain it, when, if they are present, 
they can be seen. 

Rosin may be detected by breaking a cake of 
the wax, when a smooth shining fracture is the re- 
sult, and also by taking small pieces of the wax, 
putting in a vessel, and pouring on it some alcohol, 
Avhich acts on the rosin, dissolving it, but does not 
change the appearance of the wax if pure. To 
detect tallow, you have only to take a piece of 
common newspaper and rub it over a piece of the 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 95 

wax recently broken, and you will see .the grease 
on the paper. Much can be told also by the smell, 
as that of tallow is very different from wax. 

For detecting potato-starch, take of the spirit 
of turpentine three ounces ; put into this a small 
piece of wax, say the size of an ordinary bottle 
cork ; put this on a fire and heat until the wax is 
melted. If there is any starch present it will re- 
main undissolved. 

If wax has been adulterated with starch, it does 
not possess that bright yellow color which genuine 
wax does, and it is also much heavier than good 
wax. 



CLASS V. 

Lead : its influence on the human system. — Means of pre- 
venting its deleterious effects. — Treatment of lead affec- 
tions, and process for detecting Lead where present. 

In making the remarks under this head, I shall 
be as brief as the importance of the subject will 
allow. All technicalities will, as far as possible, 
be dispensed with, and no language will be used 
but what is perfectly plain and simple, that it may 
be understood by all. It has been my object to 
render this work, throughout, a practical one, for 
the masses, and not a few individuals: and if I 
have accomplished that, thus far, I trust the re- 
mainder will be equally as much so. You will 
here have, in 'plain terms, what has hitherto been 
couched in high-flown professional terms. I shall 
endeavor to attach a degree of importance to the 
subject of lead that will cause it to be read with 
due interest, and I trust that, before closing, I shall 
bring forward sufficient proof to make every one 
believe and know that, though those who are ex- 
posed to this poison may not show its influence by 
having an attack of lead colic, still, there are many 
forms in which its influence is felt and manifest- 
ed in the human system, though the unfortunate 
individual may never once think that it is this 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 97 

poison tliat is undermining his health and blasting 
his happiness. 

In speaking of the influence of lead in produc- 
ing disease, I shall not confine myself to any par- 
ticular form or preparation of it, but of lead in 
all its forms. 

It gets into the system, in all instances, in the 
form of minute particles, unless when taken into 
the stomach, as is sometimes the case, in larger or 
smaller quantities, as a medicine or otherwise, be- 
fore producing its peculiar effect. Its influence 
is known to be acting on the animal economy by 
well-marked symptoms. The nervous system is 
particularly liable to become the seat of disease 
from this cause. When one set of nerves is the 
principal seat of disease, we see a certain set of 
symptoms. Thus, if the nerves of internal life are 
the seat, nervous action is increased; whereas, if 
the nerves of external life, as they may be called, 
are the seat, sensation and motion may be increas- 
ed, but they may be entirely lost. When an in- 
dividual has an attack of lead colic, we have 
evidence that the contents of the abdomen are the 
seat of disease. If there are sharp pains in the 
organs of external life, or if a part becomes para- 
lyzed, the nervous centres of the spine are aff'ected. 
Lead, when it gets into the system, may cause a 
variety of aff'ections, but is not apt to cause two 
diff'erent diseased conditions in the same individual 
at the same time; still, the same person may have 
one attack of lead disease, and it will manifest 
itself in colic, and at a second attack he may have 
nervous pains, paralysis, or aff*ection of the head. 
The most frequent disease from lead is undoubt- 
9 



98 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

edly colic ; with it may, or may not occur, some 
other forms of lead disease. After an individual 
has had an attack of one form of lead disease, he 
is more liable to all the other forms than one who has 
never had an attack of the disease: the presence 
of the metal in the system seems to predispose to 
any and all forms of the disease. 

Although the first attack may be mild, that is 
no proof that in a subsequent attack it will not be 
severe; and if the first attack is severe, we are not 
justified in saying that subsequent ones will be 
equally so, or worse. 

Why it is that the same poison will produce dif- 
ferent effects in the same individual under similar 
circumstances, we are not able to say with any de- 
gree of certainty. 

As it will be of some importance to the reader, 
I will leave out unnecessary forms and classifica- 
tions, and proceed to give such information on this 
subject as I think of most importance to those un- 
unacquainted with medicine. 

It is of no little importance to know that, before 
lead displays any effect on the system, there are 
certain premonitory signs or symptoms, by which 
we can tell that a "storm is rising," which, if not 
guarded against, will soon burst in tones of thun- 
der over our heads. This is a wise provision, and 
we should look well to it, for it is one of the best 
safeguards that could be given. 

The old adage of " an ounce of preventive is 
worth a pound of cure,'' holds as well in the case 
under consideration as in any of which I have any 
knowledge. These premonitory symptoms are 
observed in persons working in lead, as those 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 99 

Tvorking in lead mines, manufactories of white 
lead, litharge, &c., long hefore they experience any 
symptoms of pain or other effects from the lead. 
The lead in these cases gets into the system by 
being taken into the stomach and the lungs, and 
very soon a sufficient quantity is taken to show its 
effects. In other cases, the effect is not shown so 
soon, as in the case of house painters, manufactu- 
rers of earthen-ware, type-founders, &c. 

The premonitory symptoms are not displayed in 
sheet-lead workers, and lead in a state where no 
dusty emanations are taking place, but they are 
not free from danger on this account, as they may 
be seized suddenly with an attack of some form of 
the disease. 

In this case as all others, some persons are more 
liable to have an attack of lead disease, from the 
same exposure, than others. 

These premonitory symptoms consist in lead 
taste, lead odor, lead breath, leaden yellow dis- 
coloration of the skin, emaciation, discoloration of 
the lining membrane of the mouth and the teeth, 
which are of a leaden hue. 

The leaden taste is at once peculiar, and is de- 
scribed by patients as being of a sweet, rough, as- 
tringent nature, similar to that produced by hold- 
ing a piece of the metal in the mouth for some 
time. Some complain of its being rancid, and as 
if the mouth was drawn up. Although this taste 
is present, few, if any complain of morbid secre- 
tion from the mouth; and some even complain of 
dryness of the mouth and throat occasionally. 

The lead odor consists in this; persons that are 
working in lead, after a greater or less time, if 



100 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

they are getting under its influence, complain of 
smelling the metal all the time; it matters not 
whether they are where lead is or not, the sensa- 
tion is constantly annoying them. 

The lead breath is hard to describe; it is what 
some call a cold breathy or a sensation as if "every 
breath they bring is cold,'' and the patient will 
try many remedies to get rid of it, such as chew- 
ing pepper, ginger, &c., and taking hot fluids into 
the mouth, but all does not relieve the sensation. 

Leaden yellow color of the skin is easy of de- 
tection, when it exists to any great extent, the 
skin being of an earthy yellow tinge ; but if the 
disease is less severe, the color is paler and some- 
what ash-colored. 

This peculiar color is to be seen more perfectly 
marked in the face; yet traces of it can be seen 
on other portions of the body. Persons thus afi*eet- 
ed are often thought to be laboring under some 
biliary derangement, and may be treated for such 
by the unthinking. The yellow color is observed 
also in the urine. 

So permanent is this yellow tinge, that it re- 
mains after life is extinct, being observed on differ- 
ent parts of the body on dissection. Lead is 
sometimes taken into the system in such quanti- 
ties that it has been detected in the blood. It is 
easy enough to distinguish between the yellow 
tinge of the skin produced by lead, and common 
jaundice. In jaundice, the yellow color is bright- 
er, and borders somewhat on green ; there is the 
condition always present in jaundice that is not in 
yellowness from lead. 

Emaciation is observed only ^YhefI large quanti- 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 101 

ties of lead have been taken into the system, and 
this generally in those that work in places 
■where emanations of lead are constantly going on. 
Some persons cannot work in establishments of 
this kind lono;er than a month or two before the 
emaciation is observed. 

The change produced in the blood is said to be 
the cause of emaciation. 

Discoloration of the lining membrane of the 
mouth and of the teeth, is an important symptom. 
It consists in a discoloration of the gums nearest 
the teeth, for a line or two in extent, of a bluish 
or slate-gray color. The outer portion of the gums 
is of a light bluish-red color. There is with 
this, loss of substance in the gums; they sometimes 
become very thin, or they are partly absorbed, 
leaving the teeth bare. Sometimes the gums be- 
come tender, and they bleed on being touched. 
The lining membrane of the mouth is liable to be- 
come of this leaden color also. The teeth become 
of the same color, and when once discolored they 
are ruined, for very soon they become brittle, 
decay, and break oif before they would otherwise 
do so, by many years. This color is very difScult to 
remove from the gums and teeth. The means to 
be employed for removing it is to take a glass tum- 
bler and fill nearly full of water, and add to it 
fifty or sixty drops of nitric, sulphuric, or muriatic 
acid ; with this the parts are to be washed once or 
twice a day. If this should be too strong, make it 
weaker by adding more water, if not strong enough 
add more acid. This leaden discoloration of the 
gums, teeth, &c., is not observed in every person 

9* 



102 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

that has lead disease, but in a large number— a 
majority of them. 

Lead Colic being the most frequent form of 
disease produced by this metal, I will consider it 
first, and give what I consider of most importance 
as to its causes, symptoms, treatment, &c. This 
is a neuralgia of the digestive and urinary organs, 
produced by the introduction of lead in some form 
into the system. It is marked by sharp, continu- 
ous pains in the abdomen, with exacerbations, 
which are diminished by pressure, or if increased, 
it is but little ; there are hardness and depression of 
the abdominal walls attended by obstinate consti- 
pation, vomiting, or nausea, an escape of gas from 
the bowels by belching, loss of appetite, difficulty 
of voiding urine, the pulse slow and hard, restless- 
ness, increase of the sensibility, a loss of contract- 
ile force, and diminished secretion of the organs 
involved. 

All the symptoms just pointed out may not ap- 
pear in any one attack of the disease, but most of 
them are generally observed. 

The lead is sometimes taken into the system in 
the form of vapor or dust, through the medium of 
the lungs; sometimes into the stomach as medicine, 
and by small particles getting into the mouth, and 
then swallowed with the food ; or it may be taken 
up by the absorbents of the skin, according to 
some authors, but I think not, unless the outer coat 
of the skin is off. Lead, when taken into the sto- 
mach in the solid form, as a bullet or shot, does 
not get into the system, as the fluids of the stomach 
are unable to dissolve it, and an oxide is formed 
on the surface. Preparations of lead, when given 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 103 

as medicine, produce lead colic if continued a 
length of time, and some have had it after taking 
only one dose. Lead of tin gets into the system 
by means of cooking utensils being lined with an 
alloy of tin and lead. Wines, as before stated in 
this work, often contain lead, which is a fruitful 
source of this disease. Water, passing through 
lead pipes, becomes impregnated with the metal, 
if there is any access of atmospheric air ; and even 
when there is no access of air, if the water con- 
tains much carbonic acid, as is often the case, a 
portion of the metal will get into the water. 

The lead used in coloring candies is another 
source of this disease, and many, many are the 
children that daily fall an easy victim to death 
from this cause. The attending physician may 
never once think that the little patient is suffering 
from this cause, and thus it goes on until the inno- 
cent child finds relief in the silent grave. The 
fancy papers used in putting up candies are paint- 
ed with lead, and the child, not thinking of its 
being a poison, chews, and perhaps swallows the 
paper, thus producing the disease. Chocolate is 
sometimes covered with lead foil, and if there is 
any dampness in the chocolate, some of the lead 
gets into it, and then being used, finds its way into 
the system, carrying with it the lead. 

Snuff is also put up in lead foil, but which per- 
sons are made believe is tin foil; this snuff when 
used, comes in contact with the lining membrane 
of the nose and mouth, and is absorbed, and car- 
ried into the system. By sleeping in newly-paint- 
ed rooms, or near a wall recently painted, the 
emanations of lead are taken into the system, 



104 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

througli the respiratory organs ; one night in such 
places, is sometimes enough to produce lead dis- 
ease in some form. 

Lead colic has been produced in persons engag- 
ed in the following occupations : house-painters, 
paper-stainers, perfumers, grinders of colors, man- 
ufacturers of glazed cards, manufacturers of white 
lead, manufacturers of red lead, manufacturers of 
mineral orange, gilders on w'ood, varnishers of 
metals, manufacturers of earthen-ware and china- 
ware, plumbers, sheet-lead workers, workers in 
putty, v/orkers in tin, refiners, jewellers, 'copper 
founders, type founders, bronze founders, printers, 
manufacturers of shot, &c. &c. It will be seen by 
this list, that many who consider themselves free 
from danger, are in the very midst of it. 

Printers should avoid holding type in their 
mouth, as they often do, while correcting typograph- 
ical errors, as they are apt to swallow particles of 
lead in this "way. 

Persons working in lead are often careless, and 
do not pay that attention to cleanliness that they 
should do, which is a fruitful source of lead colic. 
Kelapses are liable to take place where an indi- 
vidual has once had the disease, though he may 
never have worked in lead, or laid himself liable to 
lead poison in any way after the first attack. 

Before being attacked with lead colic, the pre- 
monitory symptoms, before enumerated, generally 
present themselves in a greater or less degree, and 
in addition to those before named, there are gener- 
ally slight pains in the bowels, which may remain 
nearly stationary for several days. But lead 
colic comes on, sometimes, suddenly, without any 



PROTECTION OF UEALTII. 105 

pain being felt previously in the bowels. The 
symptoms, in most cases, are well defined; one of 
the most prominent of which is pain in the region 
of the umbilicus (navel). It may be seated below or 
above this point, or to either side, but not so often. 
It is described by patients as being a violent twist- 
ing sensation, or some describe it as a sharp, tear- 
ing, pricking, burning, or boring pain; nearly all 
having some particular description of their own 
suffering. 

This pain is generally relieved by pressure, but 
sometimes it is slightly increased by it. It comes 
on in fits, as it were, and throws the patient into 
the greatest agony. He tosses from side to side 
with an anxious look, screams, cries, and moans. 
He often throws himself into the most odd posi- 
tions, across the bed, on the floor, doubles himself 
up, tries to walk, says he will die, and clasps his 
hands on the bowels. Sometimes, they will shiver 
and tremble like a man with an attack of chills, 
and many other expressions of their great suffer- 
ing are manifested. 

When the fit partly ceases, the patient lies quiet, 
trying to rest from such fatigue as his motions have 
brought about. Another paroxysm comes on, the 
same symptoms are seen, and thus exacerbations 
and remissions continue until the attack passes off. 

The suffering is worse at night than during the 
day. With the pain there is nearly always cos- 
tiveness, though in a few cases diarrhoea is pre- 
sent. 

The bowels seem hard and the abdomen is de- 
pressed, and lumps or knots are felt through its 
walls. There is generally some nausea, and also 



106 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

vomiting, but vomiting does not occur so often as 
the nausea that is complained of. 

It is observed that persons laboring under an 
attack of lead colic are troubled with sleeplessness, 
even when there is little or no pain felt, and though 
the patient is much exhausted from his suffering. 

The peculiar appearance of the face of one suf- 
fering under this complaint, is observed by every 
person: it is wrinkled, contorted, and is expres- 
sive of acute suffering, never forgotten when once 
seen, but hard of description. Though there may 
be some acceleration of the pulse, there is no fever 
in this affection, the dryness of the skin is pecu- 
liar to the disease, and the pulse may be slower, 
sometimes, than natural. 

The voice is at times quite weak or tremulous, 
and some patients will not try to talk, fearing it 
will produce a paroxysm of pain. 

The appetite is usually lost, but there is not 
often loathing of food. Some patients complain 
of great thirst, while others do not speak or ask 
for drinks for some time. The peculiar color of the 
teeth spoken of while on premonitory symptoms, 
is generally noticed in lead colic ; also some ach- 
ing, w^hich cannot be referred to a decay, in every 
instance; in fact, it is peculiar to the disease. 

The pain is the first symptom of lead colic 
(after the premonitory symptoms), all the others 
following; and when the pain ceases, the attack 
may be considered at an end. 

There may be and sometimes are complications 
of lead colic. The same person may have lead 
colic and the other lead affections, to be spoken of 
hereafter. There is, sometimes, inflammation of 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 107 

the stomach or bowels, or the patient may have 
dysentery, inflammation of the membrane lining 
the abdomen, or he may fall into a low typhoid 
condition, or have typhoid fever. 

If there is inflammation of the stomach with 
the colic, vomiting will be frequent — no food will 
lie on the stomach, and drinks excite the stomach 
to renewed efforts in throwing off its contents ; 
there is a burning sensation at the pit of the 
stomach, and a sensation as if something was 
twisting or rolling. The tongue is dry and coated 
■with a white fur, under which is a slight redness ; 
thirst incessant, and the bowels swollen ; high- 
colored urine and small in quantity, skin dry with 
burning heat, acceleration of the heart's action, 
and redness of the face. 

In inflammation of the bowels with lead colic, 
there will be tenderness on pressure over the re- 
gion of the pain, with, perhaps, evacuations from 
the bowels. Should dysentery occur in colic, the 
evacuations from the bowels will be frequent, at- 
tended by griping, and the stools will be bloody, 
mixed with mucus. 

Should inflammation of the lining membrane of 
the abdomen (peritoneum), set in, the abdomen will 
be very tender, the slightest touch producing 
great pain, the patient troubled with hiccoughs, 
and frequent pulse. 

These complications, very fortunately, are not 
common. 

The duration varies very much, and no precise 
time can be stated, in which the attack will termi- 
nate, as that is governed by circumstances, pro- 
gress, treatment, &c. A severe attack is apt to 



108 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

continue longer than a mild one, all things being 
equal. 

A colic resembling that produced from lead, is 
brought on by copper ; the symptoms of the two 
though are very different. In lead colic, the pain 
is seated in a small spot in the navel region; in 
colic from copper, the pain is felt in all of the ab- 
domen. Pressure relieves lead colic; it aggravates 
colic from copper. The abdomen is swollen in 
colic from copper; it is contracted in lead colic. 
In lead colic, there is constipation; in colic from 
copper, diarrhoea often attends, and the discharges 
are abundant, slimy, and greenish. The nausea 
and vomiting attendant in lead colic, are not often 
observed in colic from copper. 

These, with many other distinguishing signs, are 
sufficient to tell one disease from the other without 
any difficulty. 

The difierence between lead colic and ordinary 
pains in the stomach and bowels, called in medi- 
cine gastralgia and enteralgia, is as follows: In lead 
colic, the pain is not increased by pressure; in the 
other case it is. In enteralgia and gastralgia, the 
evacuations are natural ; in lead colic, hard and 
unnatural. There are no hardness and depression 
in gastralgia and enteralgia of the abdomen, in lead 
colic there is. The pulse in lead colic is slow, 
hard, irregular ; in the other, feeble, slender, ir- 
regular, and frequent. In lead colic, emaciation 
is rapid and decided, in the latter, scarcely per- 
ceptible, and not for some length of time noticed. 

In lead colic, there is headache ; in the other, 
none: in lead colic certain muscles are palsied: in 
the other this does not exist. 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 109 

Many other points of difference might be men- 
tioned, but what has been given is considered suffi- 
cient to distinguish between lead colic and any 
other form of colic. 

The termination of lead colic, if properly treated 
in time, is generally in health. Other lead affec- 
tions coming on during lead colic may prove fatal. 
When lead has been in the system a long time 
there is a greater liability to other forms of lead 
disease supervening than when the individual has 
been exposed for a short time to lead. 

Relapses are unfavorable, as they indicate that 
the poison has taken a powerful effect on the sys- 
tem, and from which cause, the brain may become 
affected. The nature of lead colic is strictly of a 
neuralgic character. 

As regards the treatment of this affection, there 
have been as many different modes, almost, as there 
have been authors who have written on the subject. 
I shall not attempt to occupy time and space in 
giving these different modes, but merely the course 
of treatment most highly recommended by the 
medical faculty at the present day. 

The great remedy in this disease is croton oil. 
I am well aware that many persons are unwilling 
to administer this powerful medicine, but though 
so powerful there is none so efficacious. And when 
an individual is suffering from lead colic, any re- 
medy that will relieve them is the one to be made 

use of. 11111. 

The course of treatment pursued should be 

as follows : When a person is attacked with lead 

colic, the first thing to be done is to administer a 

dose'of croton oil. One drop should be given for 

10 



110 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

a dose, and this should be repeated every hour, 
until free evacuations are produced from the 
bowels. The best way to give the oil is to take 
one tablespoonful of water, made sweet with loaf 
sugar ; add to this one drop of the essence of pep- 
permint or cinnamon, and then put in the croton 
oil. This is to be given to the patient, which will 
not be so apt to turn against the stomach, as the oil 
frequently does, unless the essence is added. 

Should the oil not act on the bowels in the 
course of four or five hours, two drops may be 
given every hour, and with this treatment may be 
conjoined injections, consisting of castor-oil, spirits 
of turpentine and warm water. Take four ounces 
of castor-oil, two ounces of spirits of turpentine, 
and one quart of warm water ; inject half of this 
into the bowels, and if an operation is not procured 
in one hour, use the remaining portion. 

The croton oil will sometimes disagree with the 
stomach, and produce vomiting. When this is the 
case, you will have to use it by means of injections. 
Take of common starch one ounce, warm water 
half a pint, croton oil four drops. Inject this, and 
rub five or six drops of the oil over the region of 
the bowels at the same time. 

By these means, the bowels will be apt to be 
moved in the course of five or six hours. After 
the bowels are freely opened, unless the purgative 
treatment is continued, another paroxysm of the 
colic may be expected on the following day. To 
prevent this, one drop of the croton oil should be 
given about twelve or fourteen hours after the 
first action of the bowels, unless they are very 
free. Should this be the case, give the following : — 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. Ill 

Take Pulverized Aloes grains xx; 
" Rhubarb *' xx; 

" Opium " iii; 

Extract Coloc^mtli " x. 

Make into xii pills, one to be given every hour. 
This will keep the bowels in a good soluble condi- 
tion. 

During the violent paroxysms of pain, the patient 
should take chloroform, either alone or in combi- 
nation with something milder. The following com- 
bination will be found very efficient, and will 
generally relieve the pain considerably, if not en- 
tirely, for a short time : — 

Take Tincture of Hyoscyamus 100 drops. 

Essence of Peppermint 100 " 

Chloroform 1 teaspoonful. 
Mix. 

Half of this to be taken for a dose, and if it 
does not relieve the pain in a short time, the re- 
maining portion is to be taken. The mixture 
should be given in a tablespoonful or two of brandy 
toddy. 

Sometimes pains in the abdomen will continue 
for several days after the patient considers him- 
self well. To relieve these, it is necessary to per- 
sist in the use of purgatives, such as a combination 
of rhubarb and aloes, castor-oil, or it may become 
necessary to use a drop of the croton oil every 
second day. 

If, after the patient has been easy for several 
days, he feels an uneasy sensation in the abdomen 
again, it may be necessary to resort to treatment 
as active as that first made use of. 



112 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

The patient should not take any solid food so 
long as any symptoms of the disease remain. The 
diet should consist of arrowroot, rice water, tea, 
coftee, and food of that character, all of which is to 
be given in small quantity; for, otherwise, the 
patient w^ill have a return of all the violent symp- 
toms. The patient, if one that has been working 
in lead, should desist from his employment for 
some days, and even a few weeks would be much 
safer, if he is so circumstanced that he could rest 
that length of time. 

Should he return to his work too soon, another 
attack, and that, too, in a short time, will be the 
result. 

There is another affection produced by lead, 
commonly called lead neuralgia, or a pain, com- 
monly appearing in the joints, of a nervous char- 
acter. This pain may exist in the whole course 
of a limb as well as in the joints, and there is 
scarcely any part of the body but what may and 
does, in diflerent cases, come under its influence. 
This form of disease often exists at the same time 
that lead colic does, to a greater or less extent. 

The cause of lead neuralgia is the absorption of 
lead into the system. Those most liable to have 
an attack of this disease are those that work in red 
lead. It is oftener produced by applying some 
preparation of lead to a part of the body from 
which the skin has been removed, than lead colic 
is fiom the same cause. This form of lead disease 
is also more apt to be developed by inhaling mi- 
nute particles of lead than lead colic is. It has 
been produced by making use of eye-water made 
of the common sugar of lead. 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 113 

It has also been produced by applying lead in 
some form, to a part recently scalded, from which 
the skin has been removed. We can judge of the 
approach of lead neuralgia by the following signs: 
A sensation of numbness, or what is commonly 
termed "sleepy feeling," is felt in the part about 
to be attacked. 

The part feels as if it had been overworked, and 
wanted rest, though it may not have been used any 
more than any other part of the body. ^ This feel- 
ing may last for some time, one day quite trouble- 
some, another scarcely noticed by the patient, but 
eventually some night when least thought of the 
insidious foe comes to drive sleep from the eye, 
joy from the heart, and wrap the frame in misery. 
Or it may be that some bright morning, when 
rising to go forth to the daily occupation, or en- 
joy the sweetness of life in festivity, that the indi- 
vidual is suddenly checked, and thrown on a bed 
of affliction, and woe to the poor sufferer, if his 
physician should happen to overlook the cause of 
his suffering. But I trust now the means will be 
in the hands of all, by which they can not only 
detect the disease, but speedily cure it. 

The symptoms which characterize this disease 
are very often taken for those of other diseases. 
The most prominent symptom is pain of an acute 
form ; though it may be of a dull, heavy character, 
and it varies in this respect; sometimes the pain 
amounts to nothing more than an uneasy sensa- 
tion in the part for a short time, then the patient 
will suddenly be seized with an acute pain in the 
part. 

There is also loss of power in the affected organ. 

10*^ 



114 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

The parts most frequently the seat of this affec- 
tion are the lower extremities. The upper extremi- 
ties are often aifected also, but not as frequently 
as the lower. The pain in the lower extremities 
is generally seated in the back part of the thigh, 
sole of the foot, calf of the leg, and the groin. 

When seated in the upper extremities, the palm 
of the hand, forearm, arm-pit, fold of the elbow 
joint, and the hand, are the parts principally in- 
volved. The pain in either case is worse in the 
joints than the other parts; thus motion is painful, 
but pressure relieves rather than aggravates the 
suffering. 

If the trunk is the seat of the affection, the pain 
will be felt in the back, in the course of the spine, 
or it may attack the sides of the chest. Should 
the head be the part where the pain is seated, it 
w^ill be felt in the face or top of the head. 

The character of the pain as described by dif- 
ferent persons suffering from it, is not the same in 
scarcely any two cases. One will say it is sharp, 
pricking, biting; another, that it is a numbed, 
dead, fatigued sensation; some that it is burning; 
then again one will say it is a feeling of coldness, 
another that he feels like some insects were crawl- 
ing over him. This difference is OAving to the pe- 
culiarities of each individual, or at least I do not 
know what else to attribute it to, as the cause is 
the same in all cases. The pain is not steady, but 
comes on in spells similar to the paroxysms of 
colic. 

During the spells of greatest suffering, the pa- 
tient will, if lying down, rise suddenly, clasp hold 
on some part of the limb affected, and press it with 



PEOTECTION OF HEALTH. 115 

all his strength, at tlie same time giving vent to 
lamentable moans and cries; he is greatlj agitated, 
restless, and desponding. This condition exists for 
a few minutes, and then the patient becomes more 
calm, and the pain to a great extent ceases, but 
not entirely. 

If the patient lies perfectly still, there may not 
be a recurrence of the paroxysms for some time; 
but it is frequently the case, that the least move, 
or even an emotion of mind, a stream of cold air, 
and many such things will bring on an attack. 

After suffering for some time, the paroxysms do 
not occur, or if so, not often; the patient then 
complains of a continued pain, but it is not of that 
character that was present in the commencement; 
it is more dull and aching. 

There are cramps in a certain number of cases of 
this disease, in fact in some cases they are the most 
prominent symptom. During the cramps you can 
feel the muscles contracting, which passes off in 
the same way as pain without cramps. 

Though there are such violent pain, cramps, &c., 
there is no redness or swelling of the limb in this 
affection. When the lower extremities are affected, 
it is difficult for the person to walk, and the limb 
seems bent at the joints. 

The pain, if seated in the back or the loins, de- 
prives the patient of using the parts ; for instance, 
he cannot bend or stoop without great increase of 
the pain, and when the pains are in the chest there 
is difficulty of breathing. The pain is very prone 
to change its situation, one day being in one part, 
and the next day in another part. In this disease 
as in lead colic the patient is liable to have a re- 



/ 



116 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

lapse, and more especially if the cause that pro- 
duced it is not removed. 

If properly treated it should be cured in from 
three to six or seven days. With this, may occur 
lead paralysis, or palsy, to be spoken of hereafter, 
but the two are not apt to affect the same part at 
the same time. Thus there may be pains in the 
lower limbs and paralysis of the arms at the same 
time, but the former is generally somewhat dimin- 
ished in intensity before the latter appears. 

This disease may be confounded with others, an- 
other may be taken for this, or this affection may be 
thought simply the common diseased conditions of 
these parts, but by examining the following rules 
there can be no difficulty in distinguishing this from 
any other disease. 

It may be distinguished from acute rheumatism, 
by the absence of redness and swelling, and by the 
absence of tenderness on pressure, all of which is 
present in acute rheumatism. The least motion 
increases the suffering in acute rheumatism ; in this 
affection the patient jumps out of bed often with- 
out experiencing any discomfort. Kheumatism 
is of longer duration than the disease under con- 
sideration. There is also feverishness in the af- 
fected part in rheumatism but not in lead neural- 
gia. 

It resembles chronic rheumatism a little, but 
the rheumatism does not terminate so soon, and 
the joints are also swelled, and tender on pres- 
sure. It differs from common neuralgia, in not 
taking the course of a nerve, and in common neu- 
ralgia the pain remains at the same point day after 
day, whereas in lead neuralgia the pain changes 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 117 

from place to place. Besides this, there are some 
of the premonitory symptoms usually present in 
lead neuralgia. The seat of lead neuralgia is un- 
doubtedly in the nervous system. Dissection shows 
no changes in the aifected organs. 

The treatment of this disease, like that of lead 
colic, has been the source of strong contentions in 
medicine, but my remarks on the subject will only 
relate to what I consider the best mode: facts de- 
duced from the experience of the most eminent men 
in the profession. The best remedy for this loath- 
some disease is the sulphurous baths. 

Five or six ounces of the sulphuret of potash 
should be put into the bath, and this bath should 
be taken once every day for eight or ten days, 
warm. 

With this treatment, purgatives should be made 
use of, and as one that will produce a powerful re- 
vulsive effect, none is better than croton oil. ' 

Of this, one drop should be given as directed in 
lead colic, and repeated in ten hours if the bowels 
have not been freely moved. 

The bowels should then be kept open with flow- 
ers of sulphur and cream of tartar. 

Take Flowers Sulphur oz|; 
Cream Tartar ozj. 

To be taken at bedtime in water. Should this 
dose be too large, reduce it to half the quantity. 
The skin is very apt to become of a dark color 
after using the sulphurous bath, but it is of no im- 
portance, as it is only a compound formed and 
deposited on the skin — ^'sulphuret of lead." 
While taking the bath, the patient should avoid 



118 DETECTION OF FIIAUD AND 

inhaling any of the vapor that rises, by immersing 
in the bath up to the neck, and protecting the nose 
and mouth by means of interposing a bhmket or 
any thick cloth between them and the water. 

It is stated by some physicians that purgatives, 
• and especially the more drastic kind, are unneces- 
sary in the treatment of this form of lead disease, 
but I cannot see that they do any harm, and cer- 
tainly have seen them do much good, and would 
advise those that are so unfortunate as to get the 
disease, to have recourse to them by all means, if 
they desire a speedy cure. 

Another form of disease produced by lead, is one 
called, lead idiocy^ 77iadness, lead coma^ mental 
alienation^ c^-c. It does not matter so much about 
the names, but the disease has an important bear- 
ing, and it is one to which I would call particular 
attention, as it is, generally, but little understood, 
and is more apt to be overlooked or treated for 
another disease. 

This affection displays itself in delirium, convul- 
sions, coma (drowsy, sleepy feeling), and perver- 
sion of sensibility. These symptoms arise from the 
effect of lead on the brain. 

It is true that symptoms similar to these do 
arise when no lead has been taken into the system, 
but the characteristics of this affection, when point- 
ed out, will show the difference in the two. The 
features of this disease are very changeable ; in the 
morning one symptom will be most prominent, and 
in the evening this will be entirely absent, and its 
place supplied by others. 

It comes on sometimes suddenly, and goes off 
with the same rapidity. It is not so common in 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 119 

its occurrence as lead colic, in fact, it is the rarest 
form of lead disease. That lead will produce the 
disease iii question, is proved bj the fact that per- 
sons go into lead establishments, having never ex- 
perienced any symptoms of alienation of mind or 
mental derangements, and after working there for 
a certain length of time, they become affected with 
symptoms hereafter to be pointed out more clearly. 
Sometimes a short time only is necessary for 
persons to work in lead, until the head symp- 
toms are developed; again it requires a lon^ 
time. 

There are generally some precursory symptoms 
of this affection; a constant headache is one, and 
accompanying that there is also, frequently, a feel- 
ing of giddiness in the head. Wakefulness is an- 
other; paralysis or palsy sometimes precedes the 
lead symptoms, or there may b^e lead neuralma, 
before spoken of. ° 

The symptoms of this disease are, a delirium or 
wandering state of the mind, somewhat variable in 
Its nature; a heaviness and general weakness of 
the intellect, and there is an inability to perform 
the ordinary occupation ; following this is a drow- 
sy, stupid condition, so much so that the patient 
pays but little attention to surrounding objects. 

Instead of all these symptoms presenting, only 
one may occur during the entire course of the 
disease, or they may follow each other in rapid suc- 
cession. 

^ The delirium that is present is of two forms ; one 
in which the patient seems stupid, sad, and melan- 
choly, and he is quiet, as if resigned to his fate. 
At the same time if the patient is spoken to, he 



120 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

is apt to give an answer showing at once his state 
of mind. Sometimes it is necessary to speak to 
them very loud to attract their attention; others 
will talk constantly, as if some person was con- 
versing with them, though they may be alone in 
the room. 

They are restless, and it is with difficulty they 
are persuaded to lie in bed. Some will complain 
that one of his neighbors is trying to injure him, 
another hears beautiful music, another is affected 
with continual fear, &c., and many other like symp- 
toms will arise during the course of the disease. 

The other form of delirium is quite different. 
In it we observe the eyes thrown open, and the 
patient staring in amazement at some object ; he 
showers threats of vengeance on his best friends; 
even the partner of his bosom, if he is married, 
cannot soothe him ; he is continually in a rage, 
with haggard appearance, his features pinched up, 
he utters cries, curses, and sometimes lamentations, 
in a word he is what is commonly called " raving 
mad.'' 

Sometimes there are convulsions also. After the 
delirium has continued for a time there is a calm 
that follows, but this intermission does not last 
long, until there is a return of the symptoms in 
all their former fury. After one of the attacks 
there may follow a sleepy, drowsy state, the pa- 
tient lying with his eyes partly closed, then 
waking suddenly, he is taken with the delirium, or 
perhaps convulsions. 

With this disease may exist other forms of lead 
disease, such as the lead colic, lead neuralgia, 
paralysis, &c. Either one of these forms may be 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 121 

present with the head symptoms, or t^yo of them at 
the same time. 

To distinguish this affection from ordinary con- 
vulsions or mental derangement, it is necessary to 
take into consideration the fact of the individual 
having worked in lead, or having been exposed to its 
influence in any way whatever. And a still surer 
symptom is this : if an individual has had an attack 
of lead colic, or any other form of lead disease, and 
after that is taken with the symptoms just pointed 
out, you may rest assured that the disease is the 
one nov/ under consideration. 

The premonitory symptoms previously spoken 
of, are apt to precede this disease, or at least some 
of them. The delirium in inflammation of the brain 
is not intermitting as in this case. In inflamma- 
tion of the brain, there is also an acceleration of 
the pulse, which is not observed in this complaint. 

This affection is very grave; not more than half 
of the persons attacked ever recover. Lead has 
been detected in the brain after death by chemical 
tests. 

The treatment, according to the best authors, 
can be summed up in a few words. It is the ex- 
pectant, or do nothing treatment ; nothing being 
ordered more than simple mild drinks, and low 
diet. The course that I would advise is the fol- 
lowing : When an individual is taken with the 
symptoms before spoken of, and you are convinced, 
after making every examination into the case ne- 
cessary, that it is from the influence of lead, you 
should give a purgative of the croton oil. One 
drop will be suflicient ; should this not operate in 
eight or ten hours, repeat the dose. He should 
11 



122 DETECTION OP FRAUD AND 

be put into the sulplmrous baths once every day, 
as directed previously, v/hile speaking of lead neu- 
ralgia. And in addition to this he should take 
the following mixture : — 

Take Ether, sulphuric 1 ounce ; 

Laudanum 1 ounce ; 

Chloroform J ounce ; 

Essence Peppermint 20 drops. 

This is to be shaken well together, and give of 
it 30 drops every hour, mixed with a little gum 
water ; should this not relieve the symptoms, double 
the quantity should be given. The gum water 
may be made thus : — 

Take Gum Arabic J ounce; 
Water 4 ounces. 

Let this stand for half an hour, and you will 
have a thick mucilage. 

Should the patient become quiet under the use 
• of the mixture given above, discontinue the use of 
it, to be renewed if the symptoms return, which is 
apt to be the case in the course of a few hours. 
The diet should be light, consisting of soups, rice 
water, &c. 

By this course of treatment I am inclined to 
think that many can be saved that would other- 
wise be lost. 

PALSY. 

Paralysis, or palsy, is another form of disease 
produced by the absorption of lead into the system. 
Paralysis from this cause may consist in either loss 
of motion or of sensation. There is a distinction 



PROTECTION OE HEALTH. 123 

generally made between the two forms, from the 
fact that a part may have loss of sensation, and at 
the same time the power of motion remain unaf- 
fected. The loss of motion is called lead paralysis, 
and the loss of sensation, lead ansesthesia. Though 
this distinction is made, the two forms sometimes 
appear in the same part at the same time. 
^ In the paralysis, there is loss of voluntary mo- 
tion, there being no contractility of the muscles 
in which the disease is seated. 

It has been observed that the muscles which 
assist in extending the limb, are most apt to be 
aifected. 

The other lead affections may exist at the same 
time with this ; thus, a person may have lead colic 
and paralysis at the same time, or the colic may 
cease on the appearance of paralysis. 

In this, as in all other forms of lead disease, 
there are certain signs that give notice of ap- 
proaching danger. In the part about to become 
affected Avith the palsy from the influence of lead, 
there is a feeling of numbness, coldness, or prick- 
ing, and the part feels weak and heavy. 

There is a particular paralysis of the muscles of 
the forearm, called ''wrist drop," which looks 
peculiar; there is an inability to use the part when 
thus affected. 

The symptoms which present in this disease are 
easy of distinction. The paralysis may be com- 
plete, when no motion can be executed by the part, 
or partial, and then motion in a certain degree re- 
mains. The paralysis is mostly confined to the 
upper extremities, but it may attack almost every 
part of the body. 



124 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

It commences by slight trembling and numb- 
ness, and increases until it reaches its height. 
The limb does not seem stiff, as it can be moved 
in any way by taking hold of it. The disease pro- 
gresses slowly. 

It may remain for only a few days, or it may 
last for years, and even for a lifetime. It is more 
favorable when occurring in a young person than 
otherwise. It is easier relieved when only one 
muscle is affected than if the whole limb is involved. 
It may terminate in health, change to another dis- 
ease or death. 

The return to health when it does take place is 
in a gradual manner, not rapid as in some other 
lead affections. 

To distinguish paralysis from the effects of lead, 
from that depending on a morbid condition of the 
brain, or spinal marrow, it is necessary that the 
history of the case should be taken into considera- 
tion. 

If the individual has been working in lead, or in 
any way exposed to its influence, there is reason at 
once to suspect lead paralysis, and more particu- 
larly if any premonitory symptoms have shown 
themselves, or he has previously had an attack of 
some form of lead disease. 

The peculiarity of the paralysis will also be of 
service in forming an opinion. 

Tliis is one of the most serious affections pro- 
duced by lead, as the patient is very apt to be so 
disabled that he cannot pursue any occupation by 
which he could earn a livelihood ; though it does 
not often terminate fatally. Its seat is in the 
nervous system. 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 125 

The treatment should be as follows : As soon 
as the patient is seized with this paralysis, he 
should be put to bed. Then give him, the first 
thing, the following pill : — 

Take Rhubarb, pulv. grains 10 ; 

Aloes, pulv. grains 10 ; 

Extract Colocjnth grains 10. 

Make into six pills, two to be given every five or 
six hours, until free purging is produced. 

The sulphurous baths should be used once every 
day, and, to produce action in the affected muscles, 
strychnine should be given. It is a powerful 
remedy, and must be used with due degree of cau- 
tion. 

Take Strychnine 1 grain, 

have this well mixed with Gum Arabic, or wheat 
flour, and make into sixteen pills. One of these 
pills to be taken night and morning. Should this 
not excite the muscles to slight twitching, or jerk- 
ing, two pills should be given, night and morning. 
If the dose is too powerful it will produce a tremb- 
ling in the limbs, and a dead heavy feeling, and 
there will be powerful muscular action. When this 
takes place, the medicine should be discontinued 
for a day or two, and then begin again with smaller 
doses. 

A blister should be applied to the affected part, 
and after the outer skin is removed, about one- 
quarter of a grain of strychnine should be sprink- 
led on the blistered surface. 

The part should be well washed every morning, 
and more of the medicine put on as before. 

Should the symptoms of an over-dose, or too 

11* 



126 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

powerful effect of strychnine arise, the use of the 
medicine should be suspended for a short time, to 
be renewed if necessary: strychnine is, of all, the 
surest remedy in this disease. 

The galvanic battery should also be tried, if the 
means already pointed out do not relieve the case. 
The shocks should be passed through the parts af- 
fected once every day, until a fair trial has been 
given. 

By pursuing the course just spoken of, a large 
majority of the cases can be relieved. During 
the course of the disease the bowels should be kept 
open, and occasionally before bedtime tlie skin 
should be rubbed with a soft cloth and lukewarm 
water. 

The patient must desist from working in lead, 
if he has been engaged in it, or remove from its 
influence, let it be acting in what way it may. He 
should use the affected limb when he has any 
power so to do. The diet should consist of soups, 
tender beef-steak, chickens, and fresh vegetables, 
such as potatoes, asparagus, &c. 

He may be allowed also the use of beer, wine, 
coffee, and tea, in moderation; it will be good to 
promote digestion, and keep up the system, thus 
favoring the operation of the curative measures 
previously pointed out. 

The affected part should be rubbed occasionally, 
near v.here the skin is off, with a warm flannel, 
moistened in sweet oil. 

In what is termed anaesthesia, or loss of sensi- 
bility in a part, the loss of sensation may only ex- 
tend to the skin, or it may affect the parts much 
deeper. This loss of sensibility may exist and at 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 127 

the same time the patient will have good use of the 
organ. 

The approach of this affection is generally sud- 
den ; and is confined to one limb or one side of the 
body. The skin can be pinched, pricked with a 
sharp instrument, or a hot substance may be ap- 
plied to it, and there will be no complaint made of 
its producing pain. 

This loss of sensation does not last, generally, 
longer than fifteen or sixteen hours in the same 
parts at one time, being very changeable in its 
situation. The premonitory symptoms are usually 
observed in this form of lead disease. 

In treating this disease the sulphurous bath 
should be resorted to once per day, and also by 
applying stimulants to the skin, such as mustard, 
blisters, &c. &c. If these do not relieve the 
symptoms the strychnine should be resorted to, as 
previously directed, and also the croton oil treat- 
ment pursued. This course of treatment general- 
ly relieves the case. The diet should be the same 
in this as directed for lead paralysis, and the pre- 
cautions there given must be remembered while 
treating this disease. 

The most important remarks on the subject of 
lead remain yet to be made, which is, the means 
to be made use of for preventing the influence of 
lead on the human system. 

One way in which it gets into the system of those 
that work in it, is the dissemination of small par- 
ticles in the air ; to prevent this from being swal- 
lowed, or breathed, is the great object. In the 
first place, the establishment in which the men work 
should be commodious, and so arranged that cur- 



128 DETECTION OF FRAUD AND 

rents of air will pass in every way through the 
building, thus carrying out the particles of lead, 
that would otherwise remain, and a portion of 
which would be taken into the system of those em- 
ployed in working therein. 

To increase tlie current of air, there should be 
a fire-place and chimney in the building. The 
fire-place should be deep, and a constant fire kept 
up, thus rarefying the air. 

Every two weeks, a purgative should be given 
to those working in paint shops, and places where 
lead is apt to be taken into the system. Either 
croton oil, jalap, rhubarb and aloes, or Epsom 
salts, may be taken. 

It has been recommended by high authority, for 
persons exposed to lead-poison, to make use of to- 
bacco, and I think it a good rule so to do, smoking, 
or chewing, or both may be followed with advan- 
tage. 

The strictest rules about cleanliness should be 
observed. The workmen should clean their hands 
and face well, before drinking, or eating; if not, 
they are apt to get some small particles of lead 
into the bowels, by swallowing it with their food. 

They should never go to meals without washing 
their hands in one or two different waters ; they 
should never put anything into the mouth while in 
the shop ; and no water should be kept standing in 
the establishment that is to be used for drinking, 
or v/ashing the face and hands. Should there 
seem difficulty in washing off the collection from 
the hands, some sulphuret of potassium may be 
put into the water. 

Workmen sometimes carry their dinner with 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 129 

them to the shop, to save time ; this should never 
be done ; no food ought ever be eaten in the estab- 
lishment. 

They ought to wash the teeth and mouth, once 
or twice per day, with water in which has been put 
some charcoal, and they should use also every 
evening, a tooth-powder composed as follows : — 

Take Myrrh, pulverized, ^ ounce ; 
Orris Root " J ounce ; 
Peruvian Bark " ^ ounce ; 
Cinnamon " " 2 drachms. 

Mix well together. Take the brush and use as 
ordinary tooth-powder every evening, before taking 
any food. 

It will be of advantage for workmen to bathe 
two or three times a week, in warm water ; and, 
occasionally, if they could take the sulphurous bath, 
it would prove a great preventive. Soap and 
water is also a good means of cleaning the sur- 
face. 

An oil-cloth suit should be worn constantly, 
while at work, covering the person from heiid to 
foot, fitting close round the neck. The garments 
of course should always be taken off v/hen leaving 
the establishment for the purpose of taking 
meals. 

The floor of the workshop should always be 
kept damp, during working hours ; and vessels of 
water should stand in the house constantly, being 
so made that they offer a large surface, which will 
take up the lead particles. This water should be 
renewed every two or three days. Old pieces of 
canvas kept damp, and hung up in the shop, will 



130 DETECTION OF FRAUD AiND 

be of advantage in taking up the lead dust floating 
in the air. 

Another excellent preventive to the inhaling or 
swallowing of lead is a sponge, so adjusted that it 
fits the mouth and nose. This should be of the 
finest sponge, and kept constantly moist. It should 
be w^ashed several times in the course of the day. 
Should there be holes of any size in the sponge, 
they should be closed up by means of a needle and 
thread, drawing them together. The sponge is 
kept in its place by strings carried round the 
head. 

Persons engaged in working lead, ought to use 
good substantial food, consisting of vegetable and 
animal diet. 

It is thought by some that a milk diet is a good 
preventive against the attacks of lead disease : it 
is directed to be taken warm. It is worth a trial 
at any rate. 

Workers in lead should not be intemperate in 
their habits ; not that the intoxicating drinks are 
more injurious in this than any other instance, but 
during a state of partial drunkenness they are very 
liable to neglect those means that are their safe- 
guards, while working in lead. 

Those that are engaged principally in painting 
houses, and painting of like character, should do 
their mixing in the open air, unless the weather 
is too cold, and the room in which it is then done 
should have a current of air passing through it all 
the time. 

When old paint is to be scraped off, it should be 
moistened with water, a few minutes before com- 
mencing. Thus the dust that would arise, is pre- 



PROTECTION OF HEALTH. 131 

vented by the moisture, and there Is then no danger 
of inhaling the particles of lead. 

The same remark will apply to pumicing, i. e. 
moistening. 

It has been proposed that the carbonate of zinc 
be substituted for the lead in painting, and I think 
it a good suggestion ; for, by doing this, the danger- 
ous eifects of lead are obviated, and we have a paint 
that, though not so brilliant when first put on, holds 
its own much better than the lead. 

When we consider the amount of human suffer- 
ing produced by lead, the sacrifice of health and 
happiness, and loss of life, it is time that something 
was done to prevent it. In the carbonate of zinc 
we have the remedy at hand ; let it then become a 
matter of serious consideration to those concerned. 

The adulteration of various articles of food and 
drink by lead, has already been considered. 

Apartments that have been recently painted, 
should not be used ; many, many are the accidents 
that result from this cause, and often prove fatal, 
as the cause of the disease may escape the observa- 
tion of the persons afi"ected, and the attending phy- 
sician also. No person should dare to sleep in a 
room in less time than two months after the last 
paint was put on, and the room has been well 
dried, and dried by fire. 



CONCLUSION. 

Keader, what are your feelings since scanning 
the foregoing pages ? Have my efforts been in vain ? 
Do yon. intend to lay down this little volume and 
say, " Well, It's a great pity that people will not 
be honest, and that the public will not look more 
to their own Interest, but I cannot do anything to- 
wards abolishing the present system of fraud.'' 

Let me ask you, beg you, not to come .to such 
conclusions ; you can do something, and it Is your 
duty to do It. Do not think that there is any ex- 
aggeration in what has been stated. I have no 
cause for making wrong statements, I am prompted 
by no other than the purest motives; I have no 
ends to accomplish, only bettering the condition of 
my fellow-men. 

I have long witnessed the deleterious effects of 
frauds practised on the public, but not until I lo- 
cated In this city (New York), did I ever know to 
what an extent this nefarious, this unfeeling, un- 
godly practice, was carried, even by those holding 
positions In society that one would think might 
prevent them from such deeds of crime. 

But money, " the root of all evil," very truly, 
what will not some men do to obtain It. 

This work could have been made thrice as large 
as It Is, but then It would not be suitable for pub- 



CONCLUSION. 133 

lie reading — only for professional men, and as there 
are works enough written on the adulteration of 
medicines and many other things now, that are for 
medical men, I have written this little work for 
those that do not understand chemistry, and are 
strangers to medical phrases — the intention has 
been to do the most good, with the least outlay of 
time and means to the reader. 

Subjects, that large volumes have been written 
on, have here received just attention enough to 
make them intelligible, and all that is important 
has been given without dealing in speculation ; 
something that would not benefit the reader, but 
serve to render it all a mystery. 

I have availed myself of every source of inform- 
ation, in the course of its preparation : and if the 
authority has not in every instance been quoted, it 
is not for want of a due regard for the worthy 
authors, but because it was not considered neces- 
sary or desirable, in a work intended to simplify 
things for the public, and thus bestow a blessing on 
mankind. 

All the experiments that are given for detecting 
any poisonous substance in food, drink or other- 
wise, are perfectly simple, and can be performed 
by any one by following instructions. The medi- 
cines for testing can be found at any respectable 
drug store, or apothecary's, none of which is very 
costly. 

It is necessary, after trying any experiment, to 
throw out the substances with which you have been 
operating, not that they are really poisonous in 
every or any instance, but it is the safest. 

The medicine also that is procured should be 
12 



134 CONCLUSION. 

put where cliildren cannot get it ; and always keep 
on the label, to prevent its being mistaken for some- 
thing else. 

They should always be kept in the same form as 
when sent from the drug store, lest they might 
lose their strength, and on a future occasion 
prove useless in making experiments, perhaps to 
the detriment of those concerned. The quantities 
of each and every substance should be strictly 
adhered to in making experiments, otherwise a 
total failure may be the result. 

In purchasing medicine for testing, always ask 
for the best^ as the experiment may fail unless the 
medicine is pure. Should the first trial at testing 
not prove satisfactory, the experiment should be 
repeated, always noticing that the directions are 
followed in every respect, if you wish to succeed. 

In writing oft' the name of any article for making 
experiments with, be careful that you insert every 
letter as in the book, for a single letter left out 
sometimes would entirely change the character of 
the medicine intended. 

As regards what has been said on the subject of 
lead, I know that the remarks are somewhat 
limited ; but I hope enough has been said to let 
the world know the many sources of lead diseases ; 
the course of treatment to be pursued ; the means 
of obviating its influence, and the danger of ne- 
glecting cleanliness while working in it, with the 
means also of detecting it when in fluids or solids. 

The means of detecting lead are not given under 
any separate head, but throughout the work neces- 
sary directions have been given while speaking of 
lead in different articles of food and drink by 



CONCLUSION. 135 

which there can be no difficulty in detecting its 
presence when the necessary directions are followed. 

In speaking of the treatment of lead diseases, 
I have given what I term, and what all may term, 
directions for using " heroic remedies." The rea- 
sons for so doing are obvious: — no other treatment 
will serve the patient. 

Some may say that none but professional men 
are justified in using the powerful remedies pointed 
out by me. 

I must certainly differ with those that might 
make such assertions, for, by following the direc- 
tions strictly, the ordinary cases of lead disease 
can be relieved by every person of discretion. 

And now I must bring my remarks to a close ; 
and in doing so let me say, that I am well aware 
of the responsibility I have taken on myself in 
writing this book. I know that as soon as its con- 
tents are known to the world, that there are those 
who will raise the cry of "false," "unfounded," 
and many other epithets of like character, for 
the purpose of putting down that which leads to 
truth, and the detection of their villany. 

But, when you hear such persons making these 
pages the object of ridicule, " watch them," for 
if they were doing the honest and clean thing, they 
would not care how many tests were used to detect 
fraud, as they w^ould not detect anything unless it 
was present. 

When you have read the work carefully, do not 
stop at that, but immediately proceed to procure 
some articles, and apply the tests, and you will 
often find that those whom you thought honest, 
■have been cheating you every time you dealt with 
them. 



136 CONCLUSION. 

Hoping that what labor I have bestowed on this 
work will be the means of doing much good in de- 
tecting fraud, and defending honesty, I must close 
— and may the time soon come when a revolution 
in the adulteration of food and drink will take 
place, and never again may the nation be visited 
with such a calamity. 



APPENDIX. 



12* 



APPENDIX. 



To render this little work still more interesting, 
I have concluded to give a number of formulas, 
recipes, &c., which will be very useful to every 
family. They will consist of directions for making 
the various articles of perfumery for the toilet, 
tooth powders and washes, soaps, skin powder, 
preparations for the hair, &c. kc, which alone is 
worth more than twice the price of the work. They 
are not all original with me, but 77iany of them 
have never been given before, and for which I 
claim originality. The others have been obtained 
from whatever sources I thought myself justified in 
making use of, viz., French and English works. 

There have been many works written on the art 
of manufacturing perfumery, &c., but they do not 
accomplish the object which I have in view, and 
which will be obtained, as I humbly believe, by me 
in this instance ; I refer to couching the recipes, 
&c., in such language that all can appreciate them 
and make them useful if they wish. I claim here, 
what I have done throughout the work — " Simpli- 
fying technical terms, and applying the substance 
to the good of the public." It is useless for any 



140 APPENDIX. 

man to profess giving recipes for the benefit of 
those who live in the interior of the country, an^ 
include in those recipes articles that are so costly, 
or hard to procure, that the people will go without 
them rather than go to so much trouble and ex- 
pense; whereas if the one or two ingredients which 
are so hard to get, or very costly, were left out, 
the perfume, or other compound, would be nearly 
as good, and would answer every purpose. There- 
fore, I contend, that they should be given to suit 
all classes — the rich, the poor, the country people, 
and those living in cities, and to do this will now 
be my object, hoping it will do good to those into 
whose hands this little volume may fall. The sub- 
stances spoken of in the following pages can be 
obtained at almost any apothecary's or druggist's. 

Tooth Powders and Washes. 

1. Take of Prepared Chalk J ounce; 

Orris Root J ounce; 

Powdered Peruvian Bark J ounce ; 
" Cardamom Seed 10 grains. 

Mix well together, and put up in a jar or box. 
With this the teeth are to be rubbed every morn- 
ing. 

2. Take of Powdered Cloves 10 grains ; 

" Gum Kino J ounce ; 

" Cinnamon 10 grains ; 



Cream of Tartar ^ ounce. 

Mix. Very good where there is a foul breath. 

3. Take of Calcined Magnesia 10 grains; 
Pulverized Charcoal h ounce ; 



APPENDIX. 141 

Quinine 3 grains ; 

Powdered Cinnamon 5 grains. 

Mix. Used when there is a bad or unpleasant 
taste in the mouth. 

4. Take of Pulverized Charcoal J ounce; 

" Camphor 2 drachms ; 

" Rhatany Root 1 drachm ; 

" Gum Myrrh 30 grains ; 

Alcohol 10 drops. 

Rub the camphor with the spirit first, for a few 
moments, then mix all the ingredients and powder 
it fine. 

5. Take of Sweet Black Birch Bark, 

pulverized, J drachm ; 

Pulverized Bayberry 

Bark J ounce; 

Pulverized Sweet Liquo- 
rice (Root) J drachm ; 

Pulverized Extract Cate- 
chu 15 grains. 

Mix. This is very useful after extracting a 
tooth, as it generally stops the bleeding and eases 
pain. 

6. Take of Chloride of Lime 2 grains ; 

Prepared Chalk 30 grains ; 

Pulverized Peruvian Bark J ounce ; 
Oil of Bergamot 5 drops. 

Mix. This will remove the dark color from the 
teeth in a short time. It should be used once a 
day with a small brush. 

7. Take of Carbonate Magnesia J ounce ; 



142 APPENDIX. 

Burnt Alum J ounce ; 

Rock Candy J ounce ; 

Cream of Tartar 1 ounce ; 

Essence of Peppermint 25 drops ; 
" Cinnamon 20 drops. 

The cream of tartar should be dried by a gentle 
heat, then mix all the substances together and sift 
through a fine cloth. 

8. Take of Pulverized Gum Myrrh ^ ounce ; 

*' " Opium 10 grains ; 

" " Kino 2 drachms; 

" Cardamom 

Seed 10 grains ; 

Pulverized Peruvian Bark 3 drachms; 

Prepared Chalk 2 drachms; 

Essence of Cinnamon 25 drops. 

Mix. This is an excellent tooth-powder, when 
there is any undue nervous influence at work in the 
parts. 

9. Take of Pulverized Oyster Shells 2 drachms ; 

" Orris Root J ounce; 

Rose Pink J ounce ; 

Musk 3 grains ; 

Prepared Chalk 1 drachm. 

Mix. Apply with an ordinary brush. 

Tooth Washes. 

1. Take of Water 3 ounces ; 

Grated Horseradish IJ ounces. 

Let these stand for several days in a warm 
place ; strain it off, and add to it the following : — 



APPENDIX. 143 



Tincture of Tolu Balsam 1 draclim ; 

" Myrrh 1 ounce ; 

" Peppermint 1 ounce; 

" Cinnamon 1 drachm. 

Shake it well before using. 

2. Take of Water 1 ounce ; 

Chloride of Lime 1 drachm. 

Shake together in a small bottle for 35 minutes, 
then strain and add, 

Rose Water J ounce ; 

Alcohol i ounce. ^ 

Good for disagreeable breath or foul teeth. 

3. Take of Water 2 ounces ; 

Alcohol 6 ounces ; 
Flowers Benzoin 1 drachm ; 

Pulverized^innamon 10 grains ; 

" Gum Arabic 15 grains ; 

" O^^es 15 grains ; 

Sweet Almonds 1 drachm ; 

Musk 1 grain ; 

Coriander Seed 1 drachm. 

Mi^ Let them stand for eight days, and then 
boil for two hours gently, and strain through fine 
cloth, silk being the best. 

4. Take of Powdered Cloves 1 drachm ; 

" Orris Root J ounce ; 

" Cassia Bark 10 grains ; 

Alcohol ^ 3 ounces ; 

Tincture of Cinnamon i ounce ; 

" Myrrh | ounce ; 

" Peruvian Bark •ounce*: 



144 APPENDIX. 

Tincture of Spearmint 1 drachm ; 

Cologne 2 drachms. 

Mix. After standing three or four days, pour 
off and strain. 

To DESTROY THE jSTeEVE OF A ToOTH. 

This may be done by applying nitric, or sul- 
phuric acid, the red-hot "wire, or a mixture of creo- 
sote, morphine, and arsenic; but these are all 
unsafe, or not desirable. The simplest and best 
way to destroy the nerve of a tooth is, to keep it 
filled constantly with common cotton, which should 
be renewed only every third day, and in a short 
time there will be no sensation in the tooth what- 
ever. 

Remedies foe Toothache. 

1. Take of Chloroform J drachm ; 

Ether, Sulphuric, J drachm ; 

Laudanum J drachm ; 

Spirits Camphor |- drachm ; 

Tincture of Cinnamon 10 drops ; 
Alcohol, or Brandy 20 drops. 

Mix. Moisten a piece of cotton or lint, and put 
into the tooth ; or, if there is no cavity in it, put 
the moistened lint or cotton on the gum, or on the 
outside of the jaw. Keep well corked. 

2. Take of Morphine 2 grains ; 

Sulphuric Ether J drachm ; 
Spirits Nitr^ J drachm. 

Mix. Put on a piece of cotton, and insert it 
into the cavity of the tooth. 



APPENDIX. 145 

3. Take of Powdered Gum Kino 4 grains ; 

" Burnt Alum 4 grains; 

" Opium 2 grains. 

Mix. Put some of the powder in the decayed 
tooth, and on it some lint or cotton. 

4. Take of Spirits Camphor 1 drachm ; 

Oil of Cloves 10 drops; 

Tincture of Hemlock J drachm ; 
Alcohol 1 drachm. 

Mix. Apply as directed in No. 1. 

Care must be taken that none of the articles 
given above get into the stomach, which is apt to 
be the case if the patient falls asleep while they 
are in his mouth, for some of them are quite poi- 
sonous when they reach the stomach. 

Hair Oils, Washes, PePcFumes, &c.' 

1. Take of Castor-Oil 2 ounces ; 

Spirits Hartshorn 2 drachms ; 
Oil Rosemary 20 drops ; 
Jamaica Rum 4 ounces ; 

Oil Bergamot 15 drops. 

Mix. Shake well before using. 

2. Take of Castor-Oil 4 ounces; 

Tincture of Musk 1 drachm ; 

" Cantharides 1 ounce ; 

Spirits Camphor 2 ounces ; 

Oil Rosemary 3 drachms ; 

Cologne 8 ounces ; 

Alcohol 4 ounces. 

Mix. Agitate in a large vessel, and strain 
through muslin. 
13 



146 APPENDIX. 

Either of the above are as good as the ordinary 
" hair tonics" vended at the present day ; they are 
safe and pleasant, and we know what enters into 
their composition. 

3. Take of Ground White Mustard 3 ounces ; 

Alcohol 1 quart. 

Put the mustard in the alcohol, let stand for 
three days, occasionally shaking it ; then strain 
through fine muslin, and add. 

Spirits Camphor 2 ounces ; 

Sweet Oil 2 ounces ; 

Tincture Cantharides J ounce ; 

Cologne 3 ounces ; 

Oil Rose 3 drops. 

This is an excellent preparation for the hair when 
it is falling out, or has a rough, harsh feel. 

4. Take of Horseradish (grated) 1 ounce ; 

Strong Vinegar 3 ounces. 

Let it stand in a close vessel for two days ; 
shake it up briskly and strain through muslin, then 
add, 

Spts. Camphor 1 ounce ; 

Cologne 2 ounces ; 

Sweet Oil 1 ounce. 

This belongs to what is called " hair restora- 
tives,'' and answers the purpose as well, perhaps, 
as any other, where the hair wants a little stimu- 
lation, or after a severe attack of sickness, when 
the hair has a tendency to fall out. 

5. Take of Alcohol 2 ounces ; 

Rum 4 ounces; 



APPENDIX. 147 

Water 2 ounces ; 

Tincture Camphor |- ounce ; 

*' Cantharides 3 drachms; 

Carbonate of Potash 2 drachms. 

Dissolve the carbonate of potash in the water, 
and then add this to the other ingredients. Shake 
well for a few moments, and it is ready for use. 
This is a good preparation for cleansing the hair 
when troubled with dandruff, &c. 
6. Take of Red Oak Bark (powdered) J ounce ; 
Water (boiling) 1 pint. 

Let it stand for three hours ; when cool strain 
through a fine cloth, and add to it, 

Tincture of Cantharides 2 drachms; 

" Musk 25 drops; 

Alcohol 3 ounces; 

Cologne J ounce. 

This is a very pleasant hair wash. 

7. Take of Lard Oil 1 piut; 

Oil of Cloves 2 drachms ; 

" Rosemary 2 drachms; 

" Cassia 25 drops; 

" Bergamot 20 drops ; 

" Lemons 15 drops. 

Mix. This is the ordinary hair oil. 

8. Take of Sweet Oil 1 pint ; 

Oil of Cloves 1 drachm ; 

" Lavander J drachm ; 

" Anise 10 drops ; 

" Sweet Almonds 2 ounces. 



148 - APPENDIX. 

Mix. Agitate for a few minutes in a bottle, and 
it is fit for use. Used as a hair oil. 

9. Take of Castor-Oil 1 pint ; 

Oil of Bergamot J drachm ; 

'' Orange 15 drops ; 

" Roses 3 drops; 

" Vanilla 10 drops. 

Mix. This is rather costly, but a very highly 
flavored oil for the hair. 

10. Take of Sweet Oil 1 pint; 

Peruvian Balsam 1 ounce. 

Mix. And let them stand for a week, shaking 
well together two or three times a day. Pour oiF, 
and add, 

Oil of Roses 1 drachm ; 

" Vanilla 2 drachms; 

" Bitter Almonds 1 drachm ; 

^' Jessamine 2 drachms; 

" Amber 1 drachm. 

Mix, A very fine hair oil. 

Pomades. 

1. Take of Fine Suet 1 pound; 

Clarified Lard J pound ; 
Oil of Almonds J ounce; 

" Bergamot 10 drops. 

Melt the suet and lard together in a tin vessel, 
and then add the other substances. 

2. Take of Pure Ox Marrow 1 pound ; 
Sweet Oil 4 ounces; 

Oil of Lemon 1 drachm ; 



APPENDIX. 149 

Oil of Bergamot | drachm ; 
" Cloves 25 drops; 
" Cassia 20 drops. 
Melt the ox marrow and sweet oil together ; let 
them cool, and then beat with a twisted wire until 
they have a creamy appearance, at the same time 
adding the other ingredients. 

3. Take of Spermaceti 4 ounces ; 

Sweet Oil 1 pint ; 

Oil of Almonds 1 pint ; 

" Orange 3 drachms ; 

" Bergamot J ounce; 

" Lemon J ounce ; 

" Rose 5 drops. 

Put the spermaceti, sweet oil, and oil of almonds 
in a tin vessel, and melt together, then add the 
others. 

These pomades should be poured into suitable 
jars when in the melted state, and kept closely 
covered. If they are likely to become rancid add 
to them a little alcohol, which will preserve them. 

Hair Dyes. 

1. Take of Milk of Sulphur 1 drachm ; 
Sugar of Lead 30 grains ; 
Rose Water 6 ounces ; 

Mix, and bathe twice a day, for two weeks; 
and the hair will become very dark. 

A. 

2. Take of Lunar Caustic 2 drachms ; 

Rain, or distilled water 2 ounces. 

Dissolve the caustic in the water. 

13* 



150 APPENDIX. 



B. 



Take of Solution of Hydro-Sulphuret 

of Ammonia J ounce ; 

Water 1 ounce. 

Mix. Moisten the hair with A first, and then 
■with B, which will turn the hair black immediately. 
In applying this to the hair, never let the fluid 
touch the skin, but moisten the hair by means of 
dipping a comb in the solution, and combing it. 

3. Take of Lunar Caustic 1 drachm ; 
Sap Green J drachm ; 
Hot Water 1 ounce. 

Mix. And use as directed in No. 2, always 
bearing in mind that the preparation is a virulent 
poison. Should any of the preparations, 2 or 3, 
be taken by accident, such as is sometimes the case 
with children, you always have an effectual anti- 
dote at hand, viz. : dissolve a tablespoonful of com- 
mon salt in half a tumbler of water, and let it be 
taken immediately. This converts the poison into 
a new substance which is entirely inert and harm- 
less. 

Peeparations for the Skin. 

1. Take of Almonds (blanched) 4 ounces ; 
Cologne 1 ounce ; 

Rose water J ounce ; 

Tincture of Catechu J drachm ; 
White of one egg. 

The husks can be taken off the almonds by 
pouring on them hot water ; they should be then 
beaten to a paste in a mortar or other suitable ves- 



APPENDIX. 151 

sel; then add the white of egg and the rose "water, 
the Cologne, and tincture of catechu, and make into 
a paste. This is an excellent remedy for sore or 
cracked lips, and chapped hands or face. 

2. Take of Sweet Oil Bounces; 

Oil of Sweet Almonds 1 ounce; 

" Poppies 1 ounce; 

" Bergamot J drachm; 

" Lemon 10 drops ; 

Peruvian Balsam J drachm ; 

Spermaceti 1 ounce ; 

White Wax 1 ounce; 

Oil of Cassia 5 drops. 

All, except the P. balsam, is to be put into a tin 
vessel, and melted gradually over a vessel of boil- 
ing water ; then stir well for a few minutes and 
add the balsam. This is used to hide any unsight- 
ly scars or marks, on the face, neck, hands, or 
arms; also, to cover little pimples, or large freck- 
les. It should be a little warmed at the fire and 
applied with the fingers, after which a little starch 
may be dusted over it. If properly made, and used 
with discrimination, it will be highly gratifying to 
those who need it. 

3. Take of Green Tansy 2 ounces ; 

Buttermilk (fresh) 8 ounces ; 
Cologne 2 drachms. 

Put the tansy in a bowl and bruise it well, then 
add the milk and Cologne ; let stand for one hour, 
and it will be fit for use. Apply this with a soft 
linen rag, twice or three times a day, and it is 



152 APPENDIX. 

said by many, that it will remove freckles in a short 
time. 

4. Take of Dilute Muriatic Acid J drachm ; 

Brandy 1 ounce ; 

Rose water 4 ounces ; 

Tincture of Cantharides 2 drachms. 

Mix. Used for the same purpose as the above. 

5. Take of ground White Mustard 1 ounce; 

Alcohol 4 ounces. 

Mix. Let stand for three days; shake it well 
and strain through fine muslin, then add, 

Cologne J ounce; 

Oil of Sassafras J drachm; 
Tincture of Musk J drachm. 

This is also used for removing freckles, and will 
be found as innocent, perhaps, as any preparation 
that is used for that purpose ; if the skin becomes 
tender or has a burning sensation during its appli- 
cation, its use must be discontinued. A little of 
preparation No. 1, recommended for chapped 
hands, &c., will be a good application if those 
symptoms arise. As soon as they pass off the 
medicine can be applied again. 

6. Take of Sweet Oil 2 ounces; 

Oil of Sweet Almonds 2 ounces; 
White Wax 2 ounces ; 

Balsam Peru 1 drachm ; 

Alkanet Coloring Oil 10 drops. 

Melt, with a gentle heat, and stir until cold. 
This is the common Rose Li'p Salve, used for sore 
or cracked lips. Ottar of Roses and Oil Almonds 
are also sometimes added. 



APPENDIX. 153 

7. Take of Sweet Oil 3 ounces; 

Spermaceti J ounce; 

White Wax 4 ounces. 

Melt these in a tin vessel, and stir briskly until 
cold. This is the White Lip Salve, which has so 
long been used as a remedy for sore lips. 

8. Take of Lard 4 ounces ; 

White Wax Jounce; 

Spermaceti | ounce; 

Oil of Bergamot 10 drops; 

Rose Water 1 ounce. 

Melt and stir until cold. This makes what is 
termed Cold Cream, used for putting on the skin, 
to render it soft and smooth. 

9. Take of Starch (finely powdered) 1 pound; 

Powdered Orris Root ^ ounce ; 

Oil of Bergamot 10 drops ; 

Loaf Sugar (powdered) 1 ounce. 

Mix. This is what is known as '^ Harmless Skin 
Powder." 

10. Lihj White, 

This is made as follows : Take fine Paris White, 
and form it into a mass by the addition of pure wa- 
ter ; it is then made up into cakes of proper size 
by the use of small round or square rings of cop- 
per or other metal, about half an inch wide and one 
fourth of an inch thick; it is then put aside to dry. 
When thoroughly dried, the cakes can be smoothed 
and rounded off and neatly put up in boxes encir- 
cled with cotton. 



154 APPENDIX. 

11. Take of Boiling Water 1 pint; 

Castile Soap J ounce; 

Cologne 3 ounces; 

Rose Water J ounce. 

Mix. Used for softening the skin. 

Perfumes for Scent Boxes, &c. 

Take of Coriander Seeds (powder) J ounce ; 
Cloves, powdered, |^ ounce; 

Tonquin Beans 1 drachm; 

Lavender Flowers ^ ounce ; 

Orris Boot, powdered, 2 ounces ; 
Benzoin J drachm. 

They must all be in fine powder, then mix. This 
is a very pleasant perfume for a scent bag, box, or 
for a trunk, &c. 

2. Take of Powdered Calamus Root 1 ounce ; 

" Rose Buds 1 ounce; 

" Orris Root 2 ounces; 

" Cinnamon J ounce; 

" Cardamom Seed 2 drachms; 
Musk 3 grains. 

Mix. Used as No. 1. 

3. Take of Powdered Cinnamon J ounce ; 

*' Mace J ounce ; 

Ginger 1 drachm ; 

Musk 5 grains ; 

Cloves 15 grains ; 
" Calamus 

Root 20 grains ; 
" Coriander 

Seed 1 drachm ; 






APPENDIX. 155 

Powdered Cardamom 

Seed 25 grains ; 

" Rose Buds 1 drachm ; 

" Orris Root J ounce ; 

" Myrrh 1 drachm ; 

*' Cascarilla 

Bark 1 drachm ; 

Dry Orange Peel f ounce ; 

Vanilla 10 grains ; 
Tonquin Beans 5 grains ; 

Dry Bergamot Peel J drachm. 

Mix well together. This is one of the finest 
perfumes that is made, for scenting boxes, cloth- 
ing, powder puffs, &c. 

4. Take of Powdered Calamus Root J ounce; 
" Ginger 1 drachm ; 

" Cinnamon 10 grains ; 
" Cloves J drachm ; 

" Musk 3 grains ; 

" Coriander 

Seed 15 grains; 

" Myrrh 10 grains ; 
Dry Orange Peel 1 drachm. 

Mix. This is a cheap, but truly a delightful per- 
fume ; most of the ingredients can be had in the 
farthest interior of the country. In preparing 
any of the above perfumes, if there is any article 
that is not agreeable to those who may wish to pre- 
pare a perfume for themselves, they -can omit it. 
Perfumes for the Handkerchief, &c. 

1. Take of Tincture of Musk J drachm ; 

" Cinnamon J drachm ; 

" Cloves ^ drachm ; 



156 



APPENDIX. 



1 pint ; 
1 drachm ; 
J drachm. 

An agreeable perfume for the handker- 



Alcohol 

Oil of Bergamot 
" Lemon 

Mix. 
chief. 

2. Take of Alcohol 

Oil of Bergamot 
" Orange 
'' Cloves 
Sassafras 
Lavender 
Rosemary 
Anise 

Mix. Used as the first. 

3. Take of Alcohol 
Tinct. of Musk 

Myrrh 






Guaiacum 
Cinnamon 
Compound " Cardamom 

Cascarilla 
Ginger 
Tolu 
Catechu 
Orange Peel 

Mix. This is a recipe that is rather odd, but on 
the whole, cheap and pleasant. I have never seen 
it before, and suppose no one else ever did, it is so 
complex. 

4. Take of Alcohol 1 quart ; 

Spirits Camphor 1 drachm ; 



1 quart ; 
J drachm; 
J drachm; 
J drachm; 
J drachm; 
J drachm ; 
J drachmi ; 
10 drops. 



1 quart ; 

20 drops ; 

10 drops ; 

15 drops ; 

20 drops ; 
1 drachm 
J drachm 
J drachm 
J drachm 

20 drops ; 
1 drachm. 



Oil of Lemon 



J drachm ; 



APPENDIX. 



157 



Oil of Cinnamon J drachm ; 

" Cloves 10 drops; 

" Bergamot 1 drachm ; 

^' Rosemary J drachm ; 

" Lavender J drachm ; 

^' Neroli 10 drops. 

Dissolve the oils in the alcohol. This is what 
has long been called " Cologne," an excellent arti- 
cle, but°not equal to the Cologne made by distilla- 
tion, the process for making which could be given 
here, but it would be useless, as it requires appara- 
tus that none but manufacturing perfumers keep. 

5. Take of Oil of Orange i drachm 

^' Bergamot J drachm 

" Lemon 1 drachm 

" Lavender J drachm 

Tincture of Cloves 1 drachm 
" Cinnamon 1 drachm 

Alcohol 1 quart. 

The oils are dissolved in the alcohol, and after- 
ward, 1 quart of diluted alcohol (equal parts of al- 
cohol and water) is added. This is the common 
Cologne. 

6. Take of Alcohol 2 quarts ; 

Oil of Lemon } ounce ; 

" Lavender 1 drachm ; 

^' Bergamot J ounce ; 

" Orange i ounce ; 

*' Cloves J drachm; 
Bay Rum 2 ounces ; 
Oil of Cinnamon J drachm ; 
Tincture of Carda- 
mom Seed 2 drachms. 

14 



158 APPENDIX. 

Dissolve in the alcolio]. This i^ a good Cologne 

for hair-dressing, or at least is the one generally 
used by hair-dressers. 

7. Take of Bay Rum 6 ounces ; 

Cologne 6 ounces ; 

Tincture of Musk J drachm ; 

Spts. Camphor ^ ounce ; 

Oil of Nutmegs ^ drachm ; 

Oil of Origanum J drachm ; 

Alcohol 2 ounces. 

Mix. 

8. Take of Rose Water J pint ; 

Orange Flower Water J pint ; 

Tincture of Cloves 2 drachms ; 

" Musk 1 drachm ; 

•' Vanilla 2 drachms ; 
" Cinnamon J drachm. 
Mix. 

9. Take of Cologne 2 ounces ; 

Lavender Water 2 ounces ; 

Rose Water 2 ounces. 

Mix. 

10. Take of Alcohol 1 pint; 

Water 1 pint* 

Mix, and then add 

Tincture of Musk J drachm ; 

Bay Rum 2 ounces ; 

Cologne 2 ounces ; 

Rose Water 1 ounce. 

11. Take of Carbonate of Ammonia 

(pulverized) 1 ounce ; 

Oil of Lavender 10 drops; 

'' Bergamot 15 drops. 



APPENDIX. 159 

Put the ammonia into a large mouth vial, and 
drop the oil on it. This is a pleasant smelling 
salt. 

12. Take of Carbonate of Ammonia 

(pulverized) 1 ounce ; 

Oil of Rose 3 drops ; 

" Lemon 10 drops. 

Proceed as in the last. 

13. Take of Carbonate of Ammonia 

(pulverized) 1 ounce ; 

Oil of Orange 10 drops ; 

Tincture Musk 5 drops. 

As in No. 11. 

14. Take of Sulphuric Ether 2 ounces ; 

Oil of Bergamot 10 drops; 

Tincture of Musk 5 drops ; 

Oil of Lemon 15 drops. 

Mix. Keep well corked. This is an extremely 
odoriferous preparation, owing to the ether being 
so very volatile. 

15. Take of Nitrous Ether 2 ounces ; 

Oil of Orange 10 drops; 

Tincture of Cinnamon ^ drachm ; 
Oil of Caravv-ay 10 drops. 

Mix. Another very pleasant perfume, and as 
rare as it is pleasant. 

16. Take of Alcohol 2 ounces ; 

Chloroform h ounce ; 

Sulphuric Ether 1 ounce ; 

Tincture of Musk 1 drachm ; 

Oil of Roses 5 drops ; 



160 APPENDIX. 

Oil of Orange 15 drops ; 
" Lemon 15 drops ; 

" Sassafras 10 drops. 

Mix. Keep well corked. The combination given 
above of substances so different from each other, 
is indeed a remarkable one, and no one will ever 
regret having purchased the materials to make it, 
when they have tried it ; the exhilarating influence 
on the human system is wonderful. There is one 
precaution necessary in its use, that is, it must be 
used in moderation. 

17. Take of Alcohol 6 ounces ; 

Oil of Cloves 25 drops ; 

" Bergamot J drachm; 

" Lavender 20 drops ; 

" Orange 10 drops; 

Concentrated Vinegar 4 ounces. 

Mix. This is termed aromatic vinegar, and it is 
a very pleasant perfume. 

18. Take of Cologne 2 ounces ; 

Strong Vinegar 1 ounce ; 
Bay Rum 1 ounce ; 

Tincture of Cloves J drachm. 
Mix. 

19. Take of Water of Ammonia 2 ounces ; 

Carbonate of Potash J ounce ; 

Essence of Cinnamon -J- drachm ; 

u 

a 

Alcohol 4 ounces ; 

Water 3 " 



" Lemon J 
" Cloves J 



Mix. Aromatic Spirits. 



APPENDIX. 161 

20. Take of Pulverized Nutmegs ^ ounce; 

'' Sage 2 drachms; 

'^ Coriander 

Seed 3 dracbms; 

" Cardamom 2 drachms; 

" Cloves 3 drachms; 

" Caraway 3 drachms; 

'' Camphor J- ounce; 

'' Lemon J ounce; 

'' Cinnamon 2 drachms; 

Strong Vinegar 1 quart. 

Put all into a vessel and let stand 15 days, well 
covered ; then stir up well with a small wooden 
spatula, express and strain through muslin. 

21. Take of Sulphuric Ether 2 ou.ices ; 

Strong Vinegar J ounce ; 

Cologne 2 ounces ; 

Tincture of Myrrh 2 drachms ; 

Spirits Camphor 2 drachms ; 

Spirits Nitre J ounce. 

Mix. Either of the last two aromatics will be 
found very pleasant, to pour a little into a saucer 
or other open vessel in a sick chamber, where there 
are any unpleasant odors arising from the patient, 
owing to his sickness, such as fevers, &c. 

No. 20 will be useful for scenting a room in 
which a number of persons are collected together, 
as at parties, balls, and other places. 

Soaps, &c. 

1. Take of White Soap 3 ounces ; 

Carbonate of Potash 1 drachm ; 
Alcohol 12 ounces. 

14* 



162 APPENDIX. 

Dissolve the soap and potash in the alcohol, and 
then strain. This is called "the essence of soap.'' 

2. Take of Pure Palm Oil 8 ounces; 

Subcarbonate of Potash J ounce; 
Benzoin 2 drachms; 

Alcohol 1 pint. 

Mix. Let stand for ten days, and then strain 
through muslin. 

3. Take of White Soap 2 ounces ; 

Oil of Bergamot 10 drops ; 

" Lemon 10 drops ; 

Alcohol 4 ounces. 

Dissolve the oils in the alcohol, then add the 
soap which has been previously cut into fine shav- 
ings. Let stand for two days ; and strain through 
muslin. 

4. Take of White Soap 2 ounces ; 

Oil of Orange 10 drops; 

" Cinnamon 10 drops ; 

" Cloves 5 drops ; 

Tincture of Musk J drachm; 

Alcohol 8 ounces. 

Proceed as in the last. These essences must all 
be kept in a tight jar, or they will soon lose much 
of their rich flavor, and be unfit for use. 

Confections. 
1. Confection of Almonds. 

Take of Almonds (sweet) 8 ounces ; 

Gum Arabic, in powder 1 ounce ; 
Sugar 4 ounces. 



APPENDIX. 163 

Having macerated the almonds in cold water, 
and deprived them of their external coat ; beat all 
the ingredients together till they are thoroughly 
incorporated. The confection may be kept longer, 
if the almonds, gum Arabic, and sugar, separately 
rubbed, should be afterwards mixed. Then, when- 
ever the confection is to be used, beat the whole 
together until incorporated. — London Disp. This 
can be very greatly improved by the addition of 
powdered cloves, or grated nutmegs. 

2. Confection of Orange Peel. 

Take of Fresh Orange Peel, separated from the 
fruit by grating J pound ; 

Refined Sugar IJ pound. 

Beat the orange peel, with the sugar gradually 
added, till they are well mixed ; then add, 

Powdered Gum Arabic 3 ounces ; 

" Cinnamon J drachm; 

" Coriander 

Seed 10 grains ; 

Essence of Sassafras 15 drops; 
Brandy 2 ounces. 

Mix. This is the formula given by the U. S. 
Dispensatory^ with the addition of the gum Arabic, 
cinnamon, coriander, essence Sassafras, and bran- 

Miscellaneous Articles. 

1. Take of Chamomile J ounce ; 

Boiling Water 1 pint. 



164 APPENDIX. 

Macerate for ten minutes in a covered vessel and 
strain. — U. S. Disp. Add to this, 

Diluted Alcohol 2 ounces, 

And it will keep for a length of time, retaining 
an odor as pleasant as "when first made; taken 
warm it is a diaphoretic drink. 

2. Lemon Syrup. 

. Take of Juice of Lemon, strained, 1 pint ; 

Sugar, refined, 2J pounds. 

Dissolve the sugar in the lemon juice bj the aid 
of a gentle heat ; then set it aside for twentj-four 
hours ; afterAvards remove the scum, and pour off 
the clear liquor from the dregs, if there be anj. — 
London Disp. 

3. Sijrup of Midoerries. 

Take of Mulberry Juice, strained, 1 pint. 

Sugar, refined, 2J pounds. 

Dissolve the sugar in the mulberry juice with a 
gentle heat, and proceed in the same manner di- 
rected for syrup of lemons. — London Disp. 

Syrups can in like manner be prepared from 
Raspberries, Blackberries, Strawberries, &c., &c., 
and used by sick persons, by means of adding an 
ounce or two of the syrup to a pint of cold water, 
for allaying thirst. 

If the syrups have any disposition to become 
acid, as they sometimes do in warm weather, when 
prepared from unripe fruit, this can be prevented 
by adding a little good brandy. 



APPENDIX. ~ 165 

4. Essence of Cinnamon, 

Take of Cinnamon, bruised, 3 ounces ; 
Diluted Alcohol 2 pints. 

Macerate for fourteen dajs, express, and filter 
through paper. — U. S. Disp. 

5. Take of Cinnamon, bruised, 1 ounce ; 

Cardamom Seeds, bruised, | ounce ; 
Ginger, bruised, 3 drachms; 

Diluted Alcohol 2 pints. 

Macerate for fourteen days, express, and filter 
through paper.— ^. S. Disp. This is the com- 
pound tincture of cinnamon of the U. jS. Disp., 
and is much pleasanter than the common essence 
of cinnamon. 

6. Essence of Peppermint. 

Take of Oil of Peppermint 2 fluid ounces ; 
Alcohol 1 pint. 

Dissolve the oil in the alcohol. — U. S. Disp. 

7. Essence of Cloves. 

Take of Oil of Cloves 2 fluid ounces ; 
Alcohol 1 pint. 

Dissolve the oil in the alcohol. 

8. Essence of Lemon. 

Take of Oil of Lemon 1 fluid ounce ; 
Alcohol 1 pint. 

Dissolve the oil in the alcohol. 



166 APPENDIX. 

9. Essence of Sassafras. 

Take of Oil of Sassafras 1 fluid ounce ; 
Alcohol 1 pint. 

Dissolve the oil in the alcohol. 

10. Essence of Bergamot. 

Take of Oil of Bergamot 1 fluid ounce ; 
Alcohol 1 pint. 

Dissolve the oil in the alcohol. 



THE END. 



-^^. 



^S 






/ 



